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Put what you hear
into words.

A hard-to-hear word. A second singer. A chorus that comes back around. Find your way through the little decisions that go into writing lyrics for Genius.

Start with the bit you’re stuck on

Where does the advice come from?

Each entry names its source and authority tier. A linked linter check may cover only part of a convention; read its example and the entry’s qualifications for the limits.

The ascending bars ahead of each entry's tier label are its standing drawn as a ladder: four steps for the four source tiers, filled up to the tier the entry's sources establish. Climbing it is evidence, never an edit: an entry rises only when a higher-tier source confirming it joins its citations.

LyricLint advisory
LyricLint's own preference, on a convention no Genius source states: the blank line between song parts, the text-hygiene checks. It shares the bottom step with community guidance, because our preference claims no more standing than unreviewed community writing.
Genius community guidance
Ordinary community voice in any venue: an unreviewed annotation, guide-page text with no staff badge, an ordinary forum post.
External reference
An authority outside Genius: a dictionary, a language academy, a platform's own documentation. It ranks below a reviewed annotation because it is authoritative about language, not about Genius.
Editor-reviewed Genius annotation
A reviewed Genius annotation with no staff among its contributors.
Genius staff guidance
Genius staff wrote or touched it: a staff-badged guide page, staff among an annotation's contributors, or a staff reply on the forum. Who wrote it decides the tier, never the venue it appears in.
What about spelling and grammar?

The workbench also uses Harper for English spelling, grammar, and style suggestions. Those suggestions come from the proofreader, so they are not listed here as Genius conventions. Read them in the context of the lyrics before applying a change.

58 results

A spelling the guide standardizes

Suggestion spelling.standardized Automatic fix

The reviewed Genius spelling guide recommends this form.

Conventions: The standardized spellings, An apostrophe marks the omitted side.

What this check detects

The reviewed Genius spelling guide's preferred lyric forms. Case is preserved from the text being corrected, so a line-initial occurrence keeps its capital. Where an entry is marked fuzzy, any one-character typo of the preferred form is caught as well, always as a previewed fix, even where the entry’s own listed forms are safe.

  • I'mma, Ima, Imma becomes I'ma

    Also catches im'a and one-character typos Automatic fix

  • cause, cos becomes 'cause

    Also catches coz, couse and one-character typos Automatic fix

  • cuz becomes 'cause

    Previewed fix

    cuz remains valid when it means cousin.

  • ok, O.K. becomes okay

    Also catches okey and one-character typos Automatic fix

  • til becomes 'til

    Previewed fix

    British English uses till and is not rewritten.

  • trynna becomes tryna

    Also catches tryina and one-character typos Automatic fix

  • aye, ay becomes ayy

    Also catches ey, eyy, ei, eii, ayee, ayyy Automatic fix

  • hoe becomes ho

    Previewed fix

    hoe remains valid for the gardening tool or its use.

  • tho becomes though

    Also catches thoe, thogh, thoug Automatic fix

  • yah becomes ya

    Previewed fix

    yah remains valid when it means yeah or yes.

  • ya’ll becomes y'all

    Also catches yall, ya'll and one-character typos Automatic fix

  • skrt becomes skrrt

    Also catches one-character typos Automatic fix

  • Perk, Percy becomes Perc', Perky

    Previewed fix

    The replacement applies only when the word refers to Percocet.

  • boujee, boujie becomes bougie

    Also catches bougi, bougy, bouji, bourgie and one-character typos Automatic fix

  • shawty, shorty

    Both forms are accepted according to pronunciation.

    LyricLint reports neither form; the entry records the accepted variants and seeds Harper.

  • lil, li'l becomes lil'

    Automatic fix

  • whoa becomes woah

    Also catches whoah, whao, woa Automatic fix

  • dawg becomes dog

    Previewed fix

    Depends on the recording: Genius also allows a distinct or deliberate pronunciation to be written as heard, so compare the audio before replacing it.

  • choppa becomes chopper

    Also catches choper and one-character typos Previewed fix

    Depends on the recording: Genius also allows a distinct or deliberate pronunciation to be written as heard, so compare the audio before replacing it.

  • oughtta becomes oughta

    Also catches one-character typos Automatic fix

  • naïve becomes naive

    Also catches naieve, niaive, neive and one-character typos Automatic fix

  • cliche becomes cliché

    Also catches clichè, clichê, clichee and one-character typos Automatic fix

  • alright, all right

    Both forms are accepted.

    LyricLint reports neither form; the entry records the accepted variants and seeds Harper.

  • AKA, AKAs, A.K.A, A.K.A.s becomes a.k.a., a.k.a.s

    Previewed fix

    Which preferred form applies follows the position in the line.

  • G.O.A.T., G.O.A.T.s becomes GOAT, GOATs

    Also catches G.O.A.T, G.O.A.Ts Automatic fix

  • V.I.P., V.I.P.s becomes VIP, VIPs

    Also catches vip, vips, V.I.P, V.I.Ps Automatic fix

  • A.S.A.P. becomes ASAP

    Also catches asap, A.S.A.P Automatic fix

    A$AP performer names remain unchanged.

  • CREAM, C.R.E.A.M. becomes cream

    Also catches creem Previewed fix

    Keep C.R.E.A.M. when naming the Wu-Tang Clan song.

  • H.A.M. becomes HAM

    Also catches H.A.M Automatic fix

“Also catches” is LyricLint's own work rather than reviewed guidance: curated transcription mistakes, and, where an entry says so, any one-character typo of the preferred form. The reviewed guideline names the forms before the arrow and does not name these, and a typo caught this way is always previewed rather than fixed in one press.

Example

Flagged by this rule
[Verse]
Imma go

In the workbench this reads: Use “I'ma” instead of “Imma”.

Accepted by this rule
[Verse]
I'ma go

The fix

In the workbench this finding carries one control, labelled Replace with I'ma. The fix is classified as safe, so pressing it applies the edit directly: one press, one undo step.

The convention and its limits

This check detects the pattern shown above. An accepted example passes this check; it is not a review of the whole transcription.

Source

The source cited by this check:

Use standardized spellings (opens in a new tab) verified Preferred spellings with contextual exceptions
Spotted a mistake, or a convention we're missing? Send a suggestion(opens in a new tab)