( SUBCULTURE)Īugust 28, 1999: Half of a hip-hop duo ( DJJAZZYJEFF)ĭecember 24, 2000: Hip-hop’s _ Kim ( LIL) June 1, 1998: Important element of rap lyrics ( RHYME)įebruary 27, 1999: Hip-hop, e.g. Other notable hip-hop clues from over the years:Īpril 5, 1998: Rap Queen loves her supporters? ( LATIFAHSOLDONADMIRERS) “There will be puzzles that skew old, so I think, over time, things balance out.” “You should at least know the names.” And for those who remain stumped - “If you don’t know it, it’s not inferable,” he admits of some the epic June answer SOULJABOYTELLEM - just relax. To the crotchety traditionalists, Shortz says, “Even if you don’t listen to rap music, you can’t avoid it,” as with sports teams and star athletes. “I don’t know it, and my guess is people who create crosswords for the Times don’t know it, either,” he says. That’s history now,” says Shortz – but there are blind spots. SNOOKI has appeared four times - “I don’t think I’ll take any more puzzles with Snooki. The creeping in of pop culture has not been confined to rap. Slang in the clue itself, though, may be a bridge too far: Shortz, in a forthcoming puzzle by a college student, changed the hint “You might see some spitting” - answer: RAPVIDEO - to the punny “50 Cent piece.” Shortz considered using the 1997 Michael Douglas movie as a clue, but “finally went with the rapper,” a slightly more current reference (“Rapper whose 2006 album Doctor’s Advocate was # 1”). One of next week’s puzzles - spoiler alert - has THEGAME as an answer. “The first time I clued it in terms of the rapper was 1999 - ‘If I Ruled the World’ rapper.’” “In the old days, NAS would be clued in terms of the ‘80s show Emerald Point N.A.S.,” says Shortz. Whereas DRAKE may have previously been relegated to hints like “Sir Francis _,” the word now exists in a completely new context. The growing cultural relevance of rap has allowed Shortz and his writers to spice up not only answers but clues. “Crossword construction is attracting young people more and more, so naturally people put in the puzzle what they’re familiar with,” he says. He’s also published 30 teenage puzzle-makers in his time, most of them within the last decade. Shortz estimates that the average age of those who do the puzzle has fallen by 15 years - “or more” - during his time at the paper, to somewhere around 40. Photo: Craig Ruttle/Bloomberg News/Getty Images “I got a letter within those first couple months from someone who rejected the modern cultural references and said, ‘You’re trying to appeal to young solvers, and there’s no way they’ll ever solve the Times crossword,’” says Shortz. “Tracy Marrow, familiarly” “Musician who co-starred in Trespass”).īut the backlash was immediate. At the time, he’s said, the puzzle was trending toward “stodgy, old-fashioned, humorless, not particularly interesting.” But three months into his tenure, in February of 1994, Shortz included the clue “Noted rapper.” (Answer: ICET.) “It’s short and has great letters,” he says now, having gone on to use the “Cop Killer” emcee turned actor dozens of times throughout the ‘90s with a variety of clues (e.g. Dre - such useful answers, they’ve been appearing for years,” says Shortz, who took over the crossword in 1993 as gangster-rap hit its (first) peak. “And so it should have an increasing role in the crossword.” Plus: So many good words! “Rap and hip-hop culture in general is an increasingly important part of life,” says Will Shortz, the Times puzzle editor for the last two decades. But increasingly common among the clues in the gold standard of newspaper puzzles, according to the page’s guru, who is shameless about the demographic shift. Rapper with the autobiography The Way I Amįor the out of touch and ancient at heart, that’s XZIBIT, DRAKE, ROCAFELLA, MIA, and EMINEM, all answers not in People’s crossword puzzle, but from the New York Times, each used within the last week. Rapper with the 2008 hit “Paper Planes’Ĥ8. Rapper with the 3x platinum single “Hold On, We’re Going Home”ģ4.
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