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by Brendan Dunne
Nike's dominance in the sneaker market can even be seen in how frequently rappers name check the brand vs. other sneaker brands.
Complex took advantage of the Rap Stats tool available via corpus website Genius to figure out Nike's relative salience in rap lyrics vs. brands like adidas and Reebok. The results, shown in the graph above, aren't entirely surprising – Nike pulled away from its competitors at the turn of the century and hasn't looked back since. The 2015 rankings for these three brands aren't particularly close, with Nike at the top as 1.4 times more likely to be mentioned in rap songs than adidas.
From a linguistic standpoint this analysis lacks some depth. Bare model names without reference to the brand (like Air Force 1s, we see you Nelly) are missing, but it's still an interesting look at how much rappers talk about which sneaker brands.
