Background

My Oldschool Hip-Hop playlist (78 tracks)
Track Artist Key Dance Energy Val BPM
Juicy - 2005 Remaster The Notorious B.I.G. A Major 0.89 0.82 0.78 96.06
Still D.R.E. Dr. Dre;Snoop Dogg B Major 0.81 0.78 0.54 93.44
Ambitionz Az A Ridah 2Pac D Major 0.80 0.91 0.80 87.28
Straight Outta Compton N.W.A. G# Major 0.83 0.88 0.42 102.85
All Eyez On Me 2Pac C# Major 0.87 0.72 0.86 93.28
Big Poppa - 2005 Remaster The Notorious B.I.G. A Minor 0.78 0.58 0.77 84.49
Nasty Girl Nelly;Diddy;Jagged Edge;Avery Storm D Major 0.83 0.67 0.63 106.34
Real Talk Outlawz F Minor 0.67 0.60 0.55 93.51
Nuthin’ but a ‘G’ Thang Snoop Dogg G Major 0.66 0.82 0.76 94.36
It Was A Good Day Ice Cube G Minor 0.80 0.74 0.79 82.36
Hypnotize - 2014 Remaster The Notorious B.I.G. A Major 0.90 0.70 0.67 93.94
Only God Can Judge Me 2Pac B Minor 0.80 0.78 0.80 90.18
Gin And Juice (feat. Dat Nigga Daz) Snoop Dogg;Daz Dillinger G Major 0.55 0.85 0.35 94.69
Forgot About Dre Dr. Dre;Eminem G# Major 0.93 0.73 0.65 133.97
Shook Ones, Pt. II Mobb Deep A# Minor 0.76 0.79 0.50 93.86
No Vaseline Ice Cube B Minor 0.78 0.96 0.54 105.76
Real Muthaphuckkin’ G’s Eazy-E B Minor 0.72 0.85 0.78 170.51
C.R.E.A.M. (Cash Rules Everything Around Me) Wu-Tang Clan B Minor 0.51 0.51 0.56 181.03
Regulate Warren G;Nate Dogg B Minor 0.85 0.52 0.76 95.26
Boyz-N-The-Hood Eazy-E D# Major 0.78 0.48 0.73 87.69
The Next Episode Dr. Dre;Snoop Dogg A# Minor 0.92 0.91 0.29 95.31
Check Yo Self - Remix Ice Cube;Das EFX C# Major 0.93 0.74 0.77 101.37
Gangsta Gangsta N.W.A. F# Minor 0.89 0.70 0.70 98.10
Fuck Tha Police N.W.A. G# Minor 0.86 0.75 0.86 98.69
Dear Mama 2Pac F# Major 0.77 0.54 0.32 84.11
Gangsta’s Paradise Coolio;L.V. G# Major 0.65 0.51 0.39 79.97
Who Shot Ya? - 2005 Remaster The Notorious B.I.G. G Major 0.83 0.68 0.60 91.77
Who Am I (What’s My Name)? Snoop Dogg G Major 0.69 0.83 0.69 96.81
Express Yourself N.W.A. G# Minor 0.85 0.58 0.96 95.05
Survival of the Fittest Mobb Deep B Minor 0.81 0.70 0.24 94.83
What’s The Difference Dr. Dre;Eminem;Xzibit B Minor 0.75 0.82 0.76 92.03
Mo Money Mo Problems (feat. Puff Daddy & Mase) - 2014 Remaster The Notorious B.I.G.;Mase;Diddy F# Minor 0.84 0.88 0.90 104.54
You Know How We Do It Ice Cube A# Minor 0.75 0.52 0.60 92.87
Can’t C Me 2Pac C Major 0.80 0.85 0.67 95.42
P.I.M.P. 50 Cent A# Minor 0.71 0.77 0.85 84.72
Notorious Thugs - 2014 Remaster The Notorious B.I.G. B Minor 0.70 0.87 0.74 154.91
Bitch Please Snoop Dogg;Xzibit G Major 0.87 0.70 0.80 95.03
In Da Club 50 Cent F# Minor 0.90 0.71 0.78 90.05
Poppin’ Them Thangs G-Unit F# Minor 0.77 0.82 0.92 88.02
Protect Ya Neck Wu-Tang Clan G# Minor 0.82 0.51 0.82 102.01
Put It On Big L B Minor 0.71 0.62 0.80 179.82
Ms. Jackson Outkast E Minor 0.84 0.81 0.61 94.95
Break Ya Neck Busta Rhymes E Minor 0.82 0.81 0.74 83.01
It’s On Eazy-E C# Major 0.77 0.91 0.62 92.52
Ole School Shit Eazy-E C# Minor 0.79 0.67 0.64 81.90
Gimme the Loot - 2005 Remaster The Notorious B.I.G. G Major 0.72 0.66 0.68 94.19
Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthing ta F’ Wit Wu-Tang Clan C# Major 0.82 0.53 0.61 99.13
Ghetto Bird - Remastered Ice Cube A# Minor 0.76 0.80 0.42 92.06
Gimmie That Nutt Eazy-E G Major 0.95 0.85 0.78 104.08
Shame On a Nigga Wu-Tang Clan C# Major 0.89 0.43 0.41 100.19
Changes 2Pac;Talent G Major 0.86 0.66 0.33 111.11
Suga Suga Baby Bash;Frankie J F Minor 0.69 0.71 0.56 82.49
Only You (feat. The Notorious B.I.G., Ma\(e) - Bad Boy Remix |112;The Notorious B.I.G.;Ma\)e G# Major 0.75 0.52 0.79 95.78
Can’t Turn Back Outlawz C# Major 0.72 0.81 0.40 90.04
They Don’t Understand Outlawz D Minor 0.80 0.75 0.92 147.91
If You Want 2 Outlawz G# Major 0.62 0.50 0.14 93.35
Ghetto Gospel Part 2 Outlawz A# Minor 0.61 0.85 0.48 85.94
Don’t Get It Fucked Up Outlawz B Minor 0.79 0.66 0.21 167.35
Infinite Eminem A# Minor 0.64 0.86 0.57 82.02
Bang Bang Dr. Dre;Hittman;Knoc-Turn’al F Minor 0.86 0.88 0.79 95.32
X Gon’ Give It To Ya DMX A# Minor 0.68 0.86 0.62 94.95
How We Do The Game;50 Cent E Minor 0.86 0.65 0.64 98.01
Da Joint EPMD A# Minor 0.81 0.47 0.78 89.69
N.Y. State of Mind Nas F# Minor 0.66 0.91 0.89 84.10
Hit ’Em Up - Single Version 2Pac;Outlawz G Major 0.92 0.84 0.59 95.19
Kick in the Door - 2008 Remaster The Notorious B.I.G. A# Minor 0.72 0.92 0.80 179.73
Hate It Or Love It The Game;50 Cent A Major 0.80 0.78 0.44 100.00
Nas Is Like Nas B Minor 0.63 0.84 0.93 94.00
California Love - Original Version 2Pac;Roger;Dr. Dre G Major 0.76 0.85 0.76 91.52
Why We Thugs Ice Cube C# Major 0.76 0.60 0.66 98.46
Method Man Wu-Tang Clan B Minor 0.90 0.43 0.65 101.55
1970 Somethin’ (feat. The Game & Faith Evans) The Notorious B.I.G.;Faith Evans;The Game G# Major 0.79 0.64 0.48 97.32
Simon Says Pharoahe Monch C# Major 0.62 0.91 0.55 92.22
Checkmate Apathy C Minor 0.76 0.63 0.80 88.64
Welcome Mr. Green;Dave East A Major 0.63 0.78 0.82 81.38
Things Change Chevy Woods D Major 0.37 0.76 0.45 147.15
XL (feat. Large Professor) X-Ecutioners;Large Professor A# Minor 0.82 0.60 0.85 95.18
It’s Goin’ Down (feat. Mike Shinoda & Mr. Hahn) X-Ecutioners;Mike Shinoda;Mr. Hahn G# Minor 0.69 0.89 0.88 104.92

Which tracks did I submit and why?

My corpus is a personal playlist titled “Oldschool” containing 78 tracks from the golden era of hip-hop, spanning the late 1980s through the early 2000s. It features iconic artists such as The Notorious B.I.G., 2Pac, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, N.W.A., and Ice Cube.

I chose this playlist because old-school hip-hop has a rich sonic identity. It was built on sampling, boom-bap drums, g-funk synthesizers, and prominent vocal delivery, yet it also contains meaningful internal diversity. The playlist includes both West Coast g-funk (43 tracks: Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube) and East Coast boom-bap (31 tracks: Notorious B.I.G., Nas, Mobb Deep), which represent distinct production philosophies despite sharing the hip-hop label. I have a sweet spot for this playlist as I listened to this music a lot in my teenage years.

The central question of this portfolio is: can Spotify’s audio features capture the stylistic differences within old-school hip-hop and particularly the East Coast vs. West Coast divide? The genre tags confirm this split exists in the metadata, but does it show up in the audio features too?

Track-Level Features

Track-Level Feature Analysis

The violin plots compare East Coast and West Coast tracks across six audio features. Danceability is consistently high for both coasts (median ~0.78), reflecting hip-hop’s rhythm-driven foundation. However, some differences emerge:

The valence–energy scatter plot reveals that most tracks cluster in the upper-right quadrant (happy and energetic). This is musically interesting: despite “gangster rap” often having dark lyrical content, the underlying beats and samples tend to be upbeat. Spotify’s valence feature captures musical positivity, not lyrical sentiment.

Key & Mode [Pitch]

Pitch Analysis: Key and Mode

Since Spotify’s detailed chroma features are no longer available through the API, we analyse pitch at the track level using Spotify’s key and mode estimates.

The key distribution (top) shows which musical keys are most common in old-school hip-hop. Keys like C, C#, D, and G tend to appear frequently. These are common in sampled soul, funk, and R&B records that form the harmonic backbone of hip-hop production.

The mode comparison (bottom) reveals that the playlist is slightly skewed toward minor mode (43 of 78 tracks, or 55%). This aligns with the genre’s aesthetic: minor keys lend a darker, moodier quality that complements the lyrical themes of many tracks. The coast comparison shows whether East Coast boom-bap (known for grittier production) uses more minor keys than the often brighter-sounding West Coast g-funk.

A limitation of this analysis is that Spotify’s key detection is far from perfect: algorithms for automatic key estimation have accuracy rates around 60-70%, meaning some of these key labels are likely incorrect. Nevertheless, the overall distribution still reveals meaningful patterns.

Loudness [Volume]

Loudness Analysis

The loudness density plot (top) compares the loudness distributions of East Coast, West Coast, and other tracks. The mean loudness across the playlist is −6.2 dB, which is quite loud. It shows hip-hop’s preference for impactful, punchy mixes. The range extends from −13.8 to −0.2 dB, indicating that some tracks are considerably more compressed than others.

The loudness–energy scatter (bottom), coloured by decade, reveals two insights. First, the expected positive correlation: louder tracks tend to score higher on energy. Second, the decade colouring may reveal the “loudness war” effect. These tracks from the 2000s tend to be mastered louder than those from the late 1980s, reflecting changes in production technology and industry norms.

Tracks that deviate from the trend line are musically interesting: a high-energy but relatively quiet track might use dense rhythmic patterns at moderate volume, while a loud but low-energy track might be a slow, bass-heavy piece with heavy compression.

Timbral Features [Timbre]

Timbral Characteristics

While Spotify’s detailed MFCC timbre coefficients are no longer available through the API, several track-level features serve as meaningful proxies for timbral characteristics:

The boxplot comparison between coasts may reveal that East Coast boom-bap tends toward higher speechiness (denser rap delivery) while West Coast g-funk might score higher on liveness (more layered, party-oriented production).

Tempo & Duration [Temporal]

Temporal Features

The tempo histogram (top) reveals the rhythmic landscape of old-school hip-hop. The mean tempo is approximately 102 BPM, sitting in the classic hip-hop sweet spot. However, the distribution extends from about 80 to 180 BPM.

A key observation: tracks with tempos above ~140 BPM likely use half-time feel. the actual perceived groove is at half the detected BPM, a common rhythmic technique in hip-hop where the kick and snare play a slow pattern while hi-hats and rapping subdivide at double time. Spotify’s tempo detection sometimes picks up the faster subdivision rather than the slower groove.

The coast comparison may show that West Coast g-funk tends toward slightly slower tempos (the laid-back bounce of tracks like “Still D.R.E.” at 93 BPM), while East Coast boom-bap can be more varied.

The tempo–duration scatter (bottom) shows most tracks falling between 3–5 minutes with no strong relationship between tempo and length. The absence of very short or very long tracks reflects the playlist’s focus on album tracks and singles rather than intros, skits, or extended versions.

Clustering

Clustering Analysis

This interactive heatmap combines hierarchical clustering (average linkage, Euclidean distance on z-scored features) with a colour-coded view of all 10 audio features. Red = above average; blue = below average. Track names are prefixed with [E] for East Coast and [W] for West Coast.

The clustering answers the key question: which features generate meaningful clusters within old-school hip-hop? Several groups likely emerge:

The most discriminating features are likely energy, speechiness, and valence, which create the clearest colour contrasts between groups. Instrumentalness and acousticness are uniformly low and thus useless for distinguishing tracks within this genre.

An important observation: if [E] and [W] prefixed tracks cluster separately, it confirms that the East Coast / West Coast divide is audible in the features. If they are mixed together, it suggests the computational features miss this stylistic distinction.

Conclusion

Average features by Coast
Coast N Danceability Energy Valence Speechiness Loudness (dB) Tempo (BPM)
East Coast 31 0.78 0.69 0.69 0.28 -6.7 105
Other 8 0.67 0.78 0.70 0.24 -5.4 96
West Coast 39 0.79 0.74 0.62 0.20 -5.9 100

What have I learned?

This portfolio explored 78 old-school hip-hop tracks through the lens of computational musicology, using the East Coast vs. West Coast divide as a natural analytical axis. The key findings:

  1. Track-level features showed that old-school hip-hop has a distinctive audio profile: high danceability (0.77), high energy (0.73), elevated speechiness (0.24), and very low acousticness. The valence distribution is surprisingly high (0.65), suggesting that the musical backdrop is often upbeat despite frequently dark lyrical content. This demonstrates an important limitation of audio-only analysis.

  2. Key and mode analysis revealed a slight preference for minor keys (55% of tracks), consistent with the genre’s darker aesthetic. Key distribution patterns likely reflect the harmonic content of the soul and funk records that hip-hop producers sampled.

  3. Loudness analysis confirmed that the playlist is generally loud (mean −6.2 dB) with a possible “loudness war” effect visible across decades. The loudness–energy correlation is strong but imperfect, showing these are genuinely different musical dimensions.

  4. Timbral proxies (acousticness, speechiness, liveness) revealed the expected profile of a heavily produced vocal genre. Variation in speechiness captures the spectrum from densely rapped verses to more melodic, hook-driven tracks.

  5. Temporal analysis confirmed the genre’s preference for moderate tempos (~102 BPM) and standard track lengths, with potential half-time detection issues at higher tempos.

  6. Clustering identified meaningful sub-groups within the playlist and revealed which features most strongly drive groupings. This potentially confirms (or challenges) the audibility of the East Coast / West Coast dividing in computational features.

Who could benefit from these conclusions?

Limitations: Spotify’s audio features are proprietary and opaque. Key estimation is imperfect (~60-70% accuracy). The detailed audio analysis endpoint (chroma, timbre coefficients, segment-level data) is no longer available, limiting the depth of pitch and timbre analysis. Most importantly, hip-hop’s artistic core: lyrics, flow, and cultural context are entirely invisible to these features. Computational musicology offers a useful quantitative lens, but should always be complemented by close listening and cultural understanding.