

Andreessen Horowitz invests $15 million in Rap Genius - tomlemon
http://rapgenius.com/Marc-andreessen-why-andreessen-horowitz-is-investing-in-rap-genius-lyrics

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rdl
Rap Genius is particularly awesome because it kind of started as a legal hack
(you can't just publish lyrics directly, due to copyright, but crowdsourced
line by line like this is ok), but then turned into something far more useful
than the existing (legal, regulated, expensive) alternatives.

I mean, they have Nas and others coming on the site as Verified Artists
explaining their own songs.

$15mm is a lot of money, but it was probably a situation of Rap Genius having
enough growth to command a high valuation, and a16z needing a certain
percentage to make their investment acceptable to themselves.

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prayag
This is a great (and funny) way to announce funding.

RapGenius' was one of most popular presentations during the YC prototype day
exactly because they successfully pull off fabulous antics like this.

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RybacksTactics
Agreed. Check this out in particular: <http://rapgenius.com/1107426>

Basically Rap Genius developed a feature that Andreessen himself wanted to
build directly into the browser in 1993! Whole thing makes a lot more sense
with that context

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di
I didn't know Rap Genius was a YC graduate, but I should have -- what they're
doing is basically what every lyrics site of questionable legality should have
been doing years ago, and they're doing it very well.

SongMeanings specifically comes to mind as a site which seems to have
stagnated considerably after initially having a strong basis of user
contribution.

(By the way, there's already a lot of poetry and prose on Rap Genius -- for
example, <http://rapgenius.com/search?q=shakespeare>)

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iball
ilan, one of the founders of rap genius here..

we're ready to blow up the bank accounts of brilliant engineers (rails, ios)
and designers who want to help us create the internet talmud™

if you're interested, send links to stuff you've built or any work you're
proud of! jobs@rapgenius.com

<3

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zmitri
Congrats Lemon. Ben and Marc are both ridiculous Gs in their own right, and
I'm glad you guys hooked it up.

