Thanks to Yale’s groundbreaking scholarship, rap exegesis is the order of the day. When Slate magazine writer Paul Devlin started to question the accuracy of Yale’s transcriptions, a ripple of criticism quickly became a tidal wave. Slate even recruited “hip-hop pioneer’’ Grandmaster Caz into fact-checking his own lyrics in the Yale book.

Not surprisingly, Caz found errors in Yale’s version of his famous 1981 rap battle with the Fantastic Five. At one point in the text, Yale renders “And baby I want your address’’ as “And you’ll be so impressed.’’

More errors: Yale: “Like Reggie Joe on the seven-oh.’’ Caz: “Like Crazy Joe on the seven-oh.’’ The reference, Caz told Slate, “is to a South Bronx beat cop known as Crazy Joe, who patrolled 170th Street . . . a well-known figure in South Bronx street lore.’’

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