Cole Swain was scrolling through his phone before school one morning last week when he received a warning from YouTube. It was 8:24 a.m. in Los Angeles, where Mr. Swain was a college student, and Kendrick Lamar had just released his long-awaited diss track, “Euphoria,” which takes aim at Drake in the escalating feud between the two rappers.
As Swain's group chats and social media feeds exploded, he logged into Genius, a website that allows users to transcribe and annotate lyrics to explain their meaning. Swain, a volunteer editor for the site and a fan of Lamar, was ready to dig into this track.
But Genius was clearly not ready for the enthusiasm of Mr. Swain and the visitors. After about two weeks of silence after Drake's diss record announcement, Lamar's reaction on April 30th caused a flood of traffic to Genius, and just as fans were eager to hear what the artist had to say, the site was temporarily shut down. crashed.
Swain, 19, who is studying bioengineering at the University of California, Los Angeles, recalled thinking, “This is crazy.” “As much as everyone wants to read lyrics, everyone is busy writing lyrics.”
The feud between Lamar and Drake reached a fever pitch over the weekend, with both musicians exchanging songs that packed a hard punch. On Genius, a small communal corner of the internet created for music lovers, users like Swain were busy deconstructing songs as the hype around the release exploded.
While many lyrics websites only contain song transcriptions, Genius is a Wikipedia-like site that allows users to break down complex lyrics, connect dots to previous songs, and provide historical context. Masu.
A user's status on the site is determined in part by the quality and quantity of their activity and is granted various privileges, including the ability to approve or reject other users' annotations. Editors like Swain are not paid. The platform is a hobby.
Massive releases always cause some level of confusion, but the volley between Lamar and Drake garnered a rare level of attention. Editors, moderators, admins, and more competed to deliver the correct lyrics with smart, polished notes to thousands of followers in real time. Genius' list of the week's top 10 most viewed songs on Wednesday was dominated by a series of diss tracks from Lamar and Drake. According to Genius, “Euphoria” has received more than 7 million views on the site since its release on April 30th.
“It's like the NBA Finals,” said Jalyn Coleman, 21, who goes by the username @spillretro and uses the pronoun “they.” They added: “There is additional pressure.”
I also have school and work. MX Coleman is a rising senior studying creative writing and communication at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, where she often annotates and does homework at the same time.
“When I know something like this is happening, I can't concentrate on my homework,” says Mx. Coleman said. “I end up procrastinating because I want to be a part of this big thing.'' (They said they were never late on assignments or missed classes.)
Ian, who edited under the Genius username @ibmac26 and asked that only his first name be used for privacy reasons, wrote “Like That,” a song released in March by Atlanta rapper Future and producer Metro Boomin. He assisted in the transcription and made a surprise appearance. His feud with Drake began in earnest after an attack from Lamar. He also worked on the lyrics for Lamar's “Meet the Grahams,” which was released Friday night within an hour of Drake's “Family Matters.”
“It feels like either of us can throw the next punch at any time, and there's no use trying to predict what's going to be said next,” Ian said.
Jonathan Goens is a fan of Lamar and was waiting for him to release a song dissing Drake. “Especially after what Drake asked for on 'Taylor Made Freestyle,'” Goens, 32, said, imitating rappers Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg and using an AI voice filter to listen to Lamar. He mentioned the Drake song he attacked.
Goens uses Genius to study the lyrics of surprise releases, especially when the artist hasn't included them in the song, and reflects his analysis through other users' comments. He turned to a website that helped him deconstruct “Euphoria.”
Goens, a forklift driver, said: “I was curious to see if what I thought had a deeper meaning had another meaning.There were things he was saying that I didn't see at all.'' If so,” he said. Goens said he was shocked to see Genius collapsed. He continually updated the site without success, so instead he spun “Euphoria” a few more times until the website was running again.
“This fact showed me how much it meant to so many people to see an artist like Kendrick Lamar react,” he said.
Ian said the website has crashed several other times, including in 2022 when Lamar released his studio album, Mr. Moral and the Big Steppers,” and in April, Taylor Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department.” But he added that it's rare for a single song to crash the site. Representatives from Genius or his parent company, Media Lab, could not be reached for comment.
Lamar and Drake continued to release multiple songs after “Euphoria,” but things have slowed since Drake released “The Heart Part 6” on Sunday night.
Mr. Swain is taking a break from his job as an editor — he said his roommates have been teasing him about how much time he's been spending on Genius lately.
Unless, of course, Lamar takes a victory lap and drops another course, Swain added. That will definitely get him off his sidelines.