Technologies & Tools

Summary of tools

In the “#TheJayZMixtape” Dr. Kenton Rambsy uses various digital tools to analyze, collect, and present data about Jay Z’s lyrics and collaborations. Scalar, Voyant Tools, Rap Genius, and Dataverse were used to organize and covey the data to the public.

Scalar

A digital publishing platform that is designed to scholarly projects, multimedia and more. This platform allows people to combine image, text, interactive data as well as text to narratives that lets the readers explore through paths and pages that are connected. In #TheJayZMixtape, Scalar was used to create this entire project. It helped organize and present Jay Z’s visualizations, lyrical analysis and datasets as an easy and acessible way to blend culture and storytelling with data research.

Voyant Tools

Online text analysis platform used to help people study language, frequency, and repetition patterns throughout the project. In this project, it helped look at and analyze his lyrics in depth, looked deeply into his word choice, recurring themes, similes, and stylistic trends.

Documentation

The documentation page for this mixtape provides key project details, and a bit of background information on the author, Dr. Kenton Rambsy at the University of Texas at Arlington. This project was published through the Illinois Open Publishing Network in 2018. The synopsis praises the project for its exceptional use of its depth of research and for setting a great standard for future scholarly projects.