Word choices within lyrics are converted into fungible assets; multiplied by hundreds of rappers in thousands of songs, the textual marketplace becomes speculative. Opportunities arise within film and television as well. The goal of this section is to begin imagining and interrogating the scale of this cultural stock exchange that merges the formal and the financial.

SEED: The conceit of treating rap lyrics as a cultural stock exchange offers an essay angle exploring how language becomes financialized across media.

Andrew deWaard, Derivative Media, loc. 320