Andreessen Horowitz invests $15 million in Rap Genius

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.

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.

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)

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

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