Dan Gilbert - I'm Hoping It's “Smart” to Invest in “Genius” lyrics

Have you heard of a newly released app, web site, business concept or technology and thought to yourself: “Why doesn't this already exist?” The gap it fills and problem it solves seems so simple and common sense that you start asking yourself: “Why didn't I think of that?!” That was my response when I first heard of Rap Genius, originally a crowdsourced platform for decoding complex rap lyrics. For nearly four decades, rap (and hip-hop culture in general) has been one of the most influential music genres of our time. Rap and Hip-Hop have transcended from music into fashion, sports, politics, film and pop culture. Since its debut in 2009, Rap Genius has caught on in a big way among artists and the public, allowing everyone to dive into the lyrics of hip-hop music to find a deeper and better understanding of the creators' original intent. In addition, the burgeoning company has entered into licensing partnerships with all of the major music publishers, as well as dozens of smaller ones. Friday, Rap Genius took their concept to a completely new level by re-launching the platform as ‘Genius' (genius.com). With a new name and a broader scope, Genius takes a huge step toward fulfilling its mission to crowdsource the annotation of ALL TEXT on the internet (that's right—the entire web). So far, Genius has built three valuable pieces: A mission-driven community of ‘scholars' and ‘artists' who love contributing knowledge about their favorite subjects A collaborative annotation platform that is, in essence, gamified by using technology and communication infrastructure to make it fun and rewarding to be a part of the community. A lasting body of knowledge about music, literature, and many other subjects that is growing like wildfire every single day Genius has recently added new channels that allow the annotation of text in a variety of areas such as sports, history, math, politics, religion, TV/movies, games, fashion, architecture, nutrition, and magic. Some annotations are deeply informative. Others are more playful and inventive. The best annotations include a little bit of everything. You can easily become lost as you journey down the rabbit hole. Who would ever think that searching Run D.M.C. song lyrics could lead to an annotation of the Declaration of Independence that, by 6-degress of separation, leads to Vince Gilligan's Breaking Bad and Lana Del Rey's music? Check out some of my favorite Genius channels: News Genius: This channel can provide deep context and crucial accountability for the world's major headlines. Journalists can expand their coverage at Genius when column length otherwise restricts them. Also, subjects of news stories as well as others who have knowledge can clear the record where there is misrepresentation, the twisting of the truth, or flat-out inaccurate, wrong information (that never happens in the media, right?). Lit Genius: I challenge anyone to find a more informative, fun, and interesting version of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land anywhere in the world. This is true for tens of thousands of literary works already – poems, plays, and even entire novels annotated in great depth. Lit Genius contributors range from the everyday person, who just happens to love literature, to cla**rooms of students who have contributed to Genius as part of their curriculum, to professional authors themselves. Sports Genius: Here you will find everything from recently published articles by your favorite news sites, to posts by leading sports bloggers, as well as breakdowns of live events. Sports Geniuses will have the opportunity to collaborate and weigh in on the hot sports stories of the day. Sports Genius opens up a world where coaches and quarterbacks can give play-by-play breakdowns during the most memorable football games, where scouts and general managers themselves explain why they chose a certain player via annotation in the middle of the NBA or NFL drafts. Dive deeper into LeBron's “Coming Home to Cleveland” essay or find out which of your favorite rappers are former athletes. Genius is going to be big. Imagine a future where you're reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell on your iPad or Kindle and turn the page to realize that Gladwell himself has annotated part of the very section you're reading. You click on the annotated text to see that Gladwell has provided ten more examples of his 10,000 hour rule. Better yet, someone else has added background color on each of those people, and yet another listed the actual endeavors of the outliers themselves. In that moment, reading becomes a collaborative activity and allows for a deeper, richer and more connected experience. The world has never seen anything like this before. Genius is a place where community and technology combine perfectly to revolutionize the way we read and consume information. I am excited to invest in Genius (through Detroit Venture Partners (DVP)) along with Andreessen Horowitz, among others. I am also looking forward to joining the Board of Directors with Ben Horowitz and the company's founders, Tom Lehman and Ilan Zechory. From the moment I met them, I knew the creativity and pa**ion of Ilan and Tom, as well as the other team members of Genius, would propel them to build something very special. Sometimes you can ‘feel' a winner even before they speak a single word. I recommend you download the free iOS app (Android version coming soon). You will find great attention to detail and thousands of five star reviews that enhance its credibility even further. Look up your favorite song to see the deeper meaning behind the lyrics that contributors and at times the actual artists themselves have annotated on the site. If that is not your thing, search for your favorite movie and add your interpretation of the dialogue in any given scene (“Did you order the code red? You're God Damn Right I did!”). The possibilities are endless. Collaborative annotation is the future of text on the internet. How will you annotate your world?