A long form examining of what ghostwriting and biting is, where it began, why hip-hop hates it so much, and who has most severely broken the Cardinal Rule.
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| Grandmaster Caz in the 80's |
Written By: Anthony Seaman
Despite the fall of the towers, in 2001, New York hip-hop was still at the peak of its powers. Right before 50 Cent cracked the mainstream consciousness, DMX was still steaming after an unprecedented late 90’s run, The LOX, Fabolous and Cam’ron were feeding the streets with mixtapes while still finding space on radio, and Roc-A-Fella Records were the creme de la creme of it all. In lead to The Blueprint, the Roc-a-Fella founder himself, Jay-Z, would release the Kanye West produced “Izzo (H.O.V.A)” and give arguably his greatest shoutout to a rap crew that was foundational in the livelihoods of every rapper listed whether they knew it or not. “Label owners hate me / I’m raising the status quo up / I’m overchargin’ n****s for what they did to the Cold Crush”, referring to hip-hop pioneers The Cold Crush Brothers and their lack of success compared to their late-70’s peers. Grandmaster Caz was the de facto lead MC of The Cold Crush, but would go down in history not for his own success, but for the fact that rap's first commercial breakthrough “Rapper’s Delight” featured his stolen lyrics. Sugarhill member Big Bank Hank was the culprit of such theft, using the 2nd verse of the song to display the appropriated bars. Caz’s cries went unheard for years, but decades later in his Drink Champs interview he finally spoke on being cordial with Hank and The Sugarhill Gang, despite still never receiving proper payment from the iconic record that led to rap's acceptance into mainstream music. Biting styles and bars, much less an entire verses worth of material from someone was grounds for violence, even in the 70’s. It went against a core rule in life that seeped into the morals of early hip-hop; come up with your own ideas. Caz is the cautionary tale of the peril of this business, an example of why biting, uncredited songwriters, or even using the ideas of someone else can go bad for a creator. “Rappers Delight” was a Big Bang moment in hip-hop, one that could have fed Grandmaster Caz and his seeds until the Sun burns us out, and instead he’s relegated to an OG whose names have mostly been lost to the conniving underbelly of the music business.
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| Ice Cube, DJ Yella, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E & MC Ren of NWA |
Hip-hop isn’t like every other genre when it comes to the idea of songwriters. Legally artists must credit anyone who produced on a record, or had their own record sampled for a song must be credited as a songwriter. Even if you interpolate a melody from someone or to many lines of an old song a credit to the originator is needed. The extra layer that hip-hop brings in is the expectation that if your voice is on the record, you wrote every word. That authenticity matters. You can lie, you can imagine, but they have to be your own authentic ideas. Nas told us all no idea’s original, which may be true, but how you present that idea is the new wrinkle of originality that we have always requested from our rap stars. And why do we ask so much? Because of the genre’s ties to competitive art forms such as dancehall sound clashes, playing Dozens, and talent show style events. Who is more authentic? Who can be funnier? Who can say the most clever lines? Who do you want to see live the most? Who is going to touch your soul the most? This genre has always been a competitive individual sport, and using someone else's words as your own is our version of P.E.D.’s. Ghostwriting, style biting, questionable homage’s, reference tracks, and rumors have put a stench on some of rap's greatest figures the same way A-Rod will always be a mark in the eyes of baseball fans. NWA’s Straight Outta Compton album? Frontline stars Eazy-E and Dr. Dre didn’t write their verses, turning to MC Ren, Ice Cube and The D.O.C. for the heavy lifting. Hallowed legends Biz Markie and MC Lyte? You need to thank Big Daddy Kane and his timeless cool for some of their biggest moments. If you still somehow have any nostalgia towards the Bad Boy era, give it up to Notorious B.I.G. first and foremost. He had his plump fingers over so many Lil Kim, Lil Cease and Diddy tracks it’s impossible to keep it all straight. Icons like Lil Wayne, Nas, and the aforementioned Hova all have rumors of their own they’ve rarely addressed. With more reference tracks being leaked by the day for contemporary mega-stars, where do we as music fans, artists, and rap fundamentalists all sit on the different degrees of what is right and wrong when it comes to using songwriters? Where is the line?
Personally, producers and moguls looking to capitalize on their fame by making music means little. The Kanye’s, Diddy’s and Dre’s of the world were never in discussion as the best rappers ever for me because time and again rap was made secondary in their lives. Fashion, business, production, building cities in Wyoming; all above writing something bar for bar amazing. As synonymous as their raps became to the fabric of rap music, any fan knew what the truth was. The complexities come in seeing this as a layered issue when considering actually MC’s; rap has evolved sonically so with it the rules have bent. 16 bar verses didn’t exist on those stages in the Bronx, with the closest thing to a hook being call and response crowd participation. Melodies? A fast track to get you booed off the stage. From the mouths of rap fans, artists themselves, and historians (myself above all else of course) there’s some glaring fragments to consider before you discredit your favorite rappers entire career;
1. How heartbreaking is it?
If you’re gonna claim to be the best, cheating in this way becomes much more grave. How can you be the best, when there’s so many others at the top who don’t need anything but their own ideas to get there? There’s also a special kind of pain in learning that an old school act is a fake. Our whole lives we’re told about how “rap was so much better back in the day”, or how the standards were much higher. When your favorite 80’s and 90’s rappers get outed as breaking these unwritten laws when the morality of the genre (creatively at least) were much higher, it means a little more. When it comes to beatmakers and businessmen making the leap to the vocal booth, expectations should always be curbed. This right here is why the idea of Birdman and Diddy having so many writers around doesn’t keep me up at night, because frankly, they were never in the discussion as the best MC’s anyway. They’ve always been something else in my mind first and foremost, only making the transition out of ego or the fact they have a personality so electric it becomes a necessity to capitalize on it for the sake of everyone around them. It hurts more when you realize someone like Dr. Dre rarely wrote for himself because the raps were just so damn good. If someone sucks and uses writers, whatever, not like we expected much anyway. Kanye’s legacy becomes much more tricky for this reason plus by every account his dreams of being the best rapper ran side-by-side with his want to be a producer (watch even a sliver of the jeen-yuhs doc and you’ll understand). Quality matters, the want to be respected as a rapper matters, but ultimately if you’re doing double duty, you’re bound to slack off in some realm.
2. What did they get help on?
Getting help on a hook, a melody, or even a song concept is a grey area that brings you down slightly, but i’m not looking at you like you’ve cheated the genre. These are all new attributes injected into the genre mostly in an attempt to gain new fans through radio waves that most rappers don’t need any assistance for, but the ones who do can’t have a grudge held on them forever even if it makes their biggest hits. When it comes to musical artistry, co-writers are a norm. When talking about being the best rapper over the sins of becoming a well rounded artist shouldn’t be considered, because the standards just don’t overlap much. It gets tricky when you learn the commonality of entourage members throwing out spare bars to punch up a verse, and how you weigh something like that’s in your hands. We all make different rules based on the artists we love, but even the dustiest rap fans know the legends surrounding the incestuous nature of Wu-Tang writing sessions. Now when it comes to biting someone’s style, the ante is upped. When you use your star power or industry ties to hide the fact you’ve copied the way someone raps, dresses, or even their lingo why should we respect you? Even if you took it to higher highs than the originator, you always owe a piece of your success to them, and never giving them that praise is a coldblooded way to sell out on someone you once respected.
3. Is there proof?
This is where the sweaty basement dwellers at the deepest crevices of Reddit come in handy. NDA’s and the loyalty of a lifelong friend are risky for ghostwriters to break, leading fans to only assume foul play by way of interviews, stylistic shifts aligning with new on record friendships and deleted tweets. If you want to get down and dirty to know who is a phony or not it’s a winding path through anonymously marked Soundcloud pages, Trojan Horse laden .zip files, group buys from scorned studio engineers, and the occasional YouTube rabbit hole. It takes a certain level of discernment to look through disgruntled entourage members' stories to find the truth. For every old head with old affiliations to your favorite MC sitting back in an interview chair saying “Hey man I wrote stuff for some of y’alls Top 5” there’s a lot of pent up frustration and posturing to regain relevance to consider. But as evidence builds up, it’s easy to draw conclusions. One rumor can be nothing. Multiple whispers can sound like a full crowd when put together. On rare occasions you’ll even get an admission of guilt from the rappers themselves. In court, DNA evidence will outweigh an eyewitness, everytime. A smoking gun is rare in this line of work, but when you find it an entire career can never be the same.
Ice Cube
Writer: Del The Funky Homosapien
Despite Cube himself having a laundry list of people he’s written for (Dre, Eazy-E, Yo-Yo, Da Lench Mob) his cousin and Hieroglyphics member Del has admitted that Cube let him write some rhymes for him to get his foot in the door. The reason he doesn’t get an asterisk? Because Del himself admitted Cube didn’t need it, but was doing him a solid writing a few hooks and verses. The catalog is too strong for me to let helping family in the door destroy his legacy.
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| Earlly Mac, SayItAintTone & Big Sean |
Big Sean
Writer: Earlly Mac, SayItAintTone, Starrah
I, along with many people with ears, have suspected Big Sean penned a large chunk of Kanye’s Graduation, some of the groaners that lie at the end of punchlines can only come from one other man during that era, and Ludacris was off making “serious” music instead. Ye may have inspired Sean to tap his friends for help, because with a closer look longtime pal Earlly Mac can be seen in writing credits on Detroit 2. With his exact contributions being unknown and with Sean’s pen being unserious enough to break my heart, the idea of someone else in the mix doesn’t move me one bit.
Eve
Writer: Cassidy
The Philly connection runs strong, but the Dr. Dre school of writing camps runs stronger. Eve was known as The Pitbull In A Skirt for her cut throat rhyme style, one that she sharpened writing for Dre before she released her own solo album. Cassidy has admitted to writing “Got It All” by Eve, but little else has ever come out against Eve’s pen.
Nas
Writers: stic.man, Jay Electronica
Nas himself has written for the likes of Fat Joe, and Will Smith (not Fresh Prince) and has a Hall Of Fame solo catalog, but for one of the most adored rappers ever to commit the Cardinal Sin of cheating on verses should be common knowledge by now, right? The reason you don’t know about any of this is because it’s believed to be not true. “Queens Get The Money” is the crux of this whole idea, which is produced by Jay Elec and definitely has some cues from Jay’s own rhyme style. The content of the Untitled album as a whole aligns heavily with stic.man’s work in Dead Prez, but much like the Jay Elec rap style, is just a continuation of the groundwork Nas laid a decade prior. Nas said all this was fake, Jay Elec has said all this was fake, but Nas has pulled enough strange stunts in his career to which even something as heinous as this can’t be ruled out.
Future
Writer: Bobby Raps
The reigning King Of Atlanta had a reference track resurface recently showing fan favorite “Xanax Damage” was a song that was fully finished and recorded by the undergrounds chosen white boy Bobby Raps. The reference track frankly is as amazing as the version we know today, and further digging shows him hiding in plain sight on other Future songs such as “Lullaby” with Lil Uzi Vert, and “Astronauts” with Juice WRLD. Outside of “Xanax Damage” the proof of writing is nowhere to be seen on the other songs. The fact Bobby is a talented producer separate from being a songwriter casts doubt on whether it's his pen or musical composition that earned him credits here.
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| Safaree & Nicki Minaj |
Nicki Minaj
Writers: Safaree, Lunch Money Lewis, Ester Dean, Madame Buttons, Max Martin, Starrah, Pop & Oak, SZA
As is commonplace with rappers reaching for Billboard success, pop songwriters eventually came into the fold for hooks, bridges and melodic influence on songs. Pop & Oak are backbones of Kehlani and Alessia Cara’s career, Max Martin is pop’s European cheat code, and Ester Dean can be found in credits across the last 20 years of R&B music. When it comes to ex-boyfriend and noted freestyle legend Safaree and LunchMoneyLewis showing up in albums credits without having features it makes you wonder where they helped. Coming to her defense was producer Hitmaka who spoken out for Minaj after Latto claimed Nicki used writers and reference tracks to build her songs.
Megan Thee Stallion
Writers: Pardison Fontaine, London Jae, Derrick Milano
London, Pardi and Derrick are some of the hardest working writers in mainstream R&B and hip-hop today. Each act has a keen skill for writing verses and hooks, for women rappers in particular all finding credits on Cardi B, BIA and Latto records though it’s not murky where they stepped in to help. With Megan’s career being built off the buzz of pre-industry parking lot freestyles and co-writers appearing mainly on her more pop sentric records it’s safe to assume hooks and at worst spare bars are the extent of content infused by outside sources.
Jay-Z
Writers/Styles: Kanye West, Consequence, The Notorious B.I.G., Young Chris, Ja Rule, The Bay by way of Snoop
Oh yeah, time for some big dogs. Ye, Consequence and Ja Rule have for years been confirmed as writing the hooks for “Lucifer” and “Encore”, respectively with reference tracks and direct quotes acting as proof. Sure, fine. Big time rapper doesn’t write some hooks, nothing crazy. The real sketchy stuff comes when you recognize the style shift post-Biggie murder. Getting Vol. 1 executive produced by Diddy could have just been Jay taking a big swing to enter the mainstream after Reasonable Doubt got him more critical than commercial success. But with Bad Boy’s history of writing camps, maybe Jay taking a pre-written record (or at least some flows and hooks) isn’t out of the realm of possibility. Only the most trained ears and Hov-ologists would know enough to recognize these subtle shifts that kept him fresh over his 30+ year career. Lets not forget his slight style shift that came after the State Property invasion of Roc-A-Fella that can be traced to Young Chris directly. On a more personal note, wether he gave props in private or not, repurposing Snoop Dogg’s -izzle pig latin (which by his own account was originally a Northern California slang) on his songs will never sit right with me.
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| Wu-Tang Clan |
Wu-Tang Clan
Writers: Each other
Ghost and Rae have both spoken out about sharing bars early in their career. They aren’t the only culprits though, with nearly everyone in Wu-Tang borrowing lines from one another through their decades of freestyling with one another. Rumors from within the Wu have floated around for years about Ol Dirty Bastard not writing a majority of his opus Return To The 36 Chambers, with RZA and GZA as the main architects.
Beastie Boys
Writers: Run-DMC
Check the credits and you’ll see Run-DMC all in attendance on the credits of early Beastie’s hit “Paul Revere”. It gets deeper reading rumors of the crew's involvement in the entire classic debut record, though unproven.
Lil Wayne
Writers/Styles: The Diplomats, Gillie The Kid, Drake, Gudda Gudda
This is the tipping point. Sitting on the fine line of getting an asterisk by his name in the imaginary Hip-Hop Hall Of Fame due to a sea of allegations and shifts in style (fashion, slang and flow wise) is one of the greatest rappers to ever live. As the Hot Boys fell apart and Wayne’s solo career was beginning to go creatively stale, Tha Carter (for my money the best Wayne project with a UPC code) was billed as the final collaboration with Mannie Fresh. Philly’s Gillie The Kid for years beefed with Cash Money as a whole and broke his silence about ghostwriting for the label thanks to Birdman's shady business practices. Not only was Birdman a main abuser of Gillie’s verses, but allegedly Carter I was stained with his pen. Come Carter II Wayne was running heavy with Juelz Santana and Cam’ron, switching his style to more playful punchlines and colorful lifestyle raps that could fit on any Dipset or DJ Clue mixtape. Drake’s syrupy simp anthems leaked into Wayne’s next few projects with songs like “I’m Single” (confirmed to have been a full on Drake track repurposed by Wayne for his own album) and forever earned side eyes from rap purists. The influx of Drake and Nicki influence into his own style seems minimal when you recognize Wayne literally has thousands of verses floating around in the ether, but in the moment it casted doubt on the man once viewed as the “best rapper alive”. What stops him from fully getting the asterisk is multifaceted; how often would a man who chooses to freestyle nearly every record choose to sit down and spend time reading lyrics from someone else? How much do the handful of Gillie/Juelz/Drake/Nicki-ish songs weigh when placed side-by-side with enough songs for 3 lifetimes? I’ll argue to my death C1 isn’t as tainted as Gillie fans love to make it seem (someone disgruntled with a boss taking shots at a coworker who’s getting all the shine he wants is a hater move more than a whistleblowing) while the real issues come with the Young Money era. All the groaner punchlines from Rebirth until he became reinvigorated for Carter V fit hand in hand with Gudda Gudda and Jae Millz songs of the same time. With Drake, Nicki and Tyga creating their own success, the idea of Wayne calling for the bench players to carry their weight in some way can’t be ruled out.
Jay Rock
Writer: Kendrick Lamar
A reference track on the two-for-one single “King’s Dead” (released to promote The Black Panther Soundtrack and Rock’s solo album Redemption) showed TDE’s founding MC doing karaoke with Kendrick’s words. So what, one really big single was gifted to Rock from his mentee. Real Del-Ice Cube vibes here, nothing too big. But the defining Jay Rock moment comes in the form of “Money Trees”. A verse so potent it stands out as arguably the best single verse on the single best album of its generation, living in history as one of the greatest guest verses of all time. Another reference track leaked years ago and was (nearly) scrubbed from the internet soon after, revealing Kendrick wrote and created the flow pattern for the classic record. 90059 and the rest of Redemption are immaculate records that were seemingly written in full by Rock, but how can two cataclysmic moments that helped shape how the world views you being written by someone else not break your heart as a fan?
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| Memphis Bleek & Jay-Z |
Memphis Bleek
Writer: Jay-Z
The plan was to release Reasonable Doubt, sit back, and build a roster under Roc-A-Fella that could keep the cash flowing in for the next few decades while Dame, Jay and Biggs expanded their empire. That never happened, and a small part was because their first hope just couldn’t cut it himself. Bleek and Jay’s relationships ties back to their childhood in Marcy Projects, and to help his little homie out, Jay gifted him features and a deal that would set him for life. Deeper even were the songs Jay fleshed out and handed to Bleek his debut movement, “Coming Of Age” (confirmed by Bleek himself), and spent the rest of his career sounding like a Hova Jr. How much else was gifted to Bleek we’ll never know.
Cardi B
Writers: Pardison Fontaine, London Jae, Nija
Cardi claims it’s only on some hooks, BIA (an acclaimed songwriter herself) claims Cardi’s lyrics are workshopped with others, but where is the truth? The people who have spoken to Cardi’s defense are herself and the name attached to her lyrics most, Pardison Fontaine. With so many women using writers across time, and with Cardi’s quality of music jumping through the roof the second Atalntic got involved (home of many famed contemporary rap ghostwriters and users of said writers), it’s a safe bet that these “rumors” are closer to fact than we all choose to get behind.
Foxy Brown
Writers: Jay-Z, Mad Skillz
Just read the credits to Ill Nana. Sean Carter is credited on nearly half the album, while Mad Skillz has hinted at his involvement with Foxy’s parts for The Firm’s lone album.
Fat Joe
Writers: Big Pun, Cuban Linx, Triple Seis
Cuban Linx has spoken out about frustrations in the lack of credits and royalties for himself and Pun from Joe many times over the years. Cuban also said Joe’s most famous work Don Cartengena, was roughly “written 90% by Pun”. After Pun's death there’s a noticeable dropoff not only in quality, but even the rhyming style of Joe. Losing a close friend is painful enough, and could alone be the reason for such a sea change, but losing a head writer can do the same.
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| CyHi & Travi$ in studio |
Travi$ Scott
Writers: CyHi The Prynce, Tory Lanez, Starrah, Kanye West
Everyone from here out is confirmed time and again to be thiefs, biters, of heavy users of writers so much it’s impossible to ignore. Travi$ not only has accusations of just being a shitty guy in general, but also stealing beats from young producers claiming them as his own. While his mentor Kanye may have broken the door down for proudly giving credits to 10+ producers on songs, Travi$ at first wanted you to believe he was the mastermind of his productions. WondaGurl, Metro Boomin, Mike Dean and J Gramm were the real backbones of the final version of Owl Pharaoh, Days Before Rodeo and Rodeo. When it comes to songs Tory Lanez and CyHi have both spoken out about their involvement in projects like Days Before and Astroworld while also appearing openly in the credits. A NoBells article from last year also exposed that most of the tracks from Utopia had been leaked across the years with Kanye vocals attached, which as we know could have been written by a dozen different artists. Starrah, an elusive background vocalist and witer with credits on songs from Nicki, The Weeknd, Drake and Big Sean also shows up in the official liner notes for “Pick Up The Phone”, “Way Back” and “Lose” from Birds In The Trap Sing McKnight.
Game
Writers: 50 Cent, Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole
Anyone beefing with 50 is an idiot, and this is a premier example. When Game and G-Unit had a proper relationship 50 was the King Of The Universe. The best hook writer of his era, 50 was gifting songs to everyone on his label, Game included. The Dr. Dre school of making the best song by any means was indebted into Game as a fan and a mentee, leading to him using multiple full finished 50 Cent songs to craft his classic debut The Documentary. That alone is enough to earn ire from the world but his chameleonic style thieving along with rumors of Cole and Kendrick in their early years gifting game verses and hooks put it over the top.
Queen Latifah, MC Lyte, Salt-N-Pepa, Roxanne Shante
Writers: Kool G Rap, Apache, Big Daddy Kane, LL Cool J
We take for granted today the amount of women that earn opportunities to be stars in today's music landscape, but in the 80’s and 90’s you were lucky to hear a new one every 3 years. The industry was male dominant, the fanbase was male dominant (not counting Kane) and the art form was a machismo drenched dick swinging contest. Latifah, Lyte, Salt-N-Pepa and Roxanne Shante broke down those barriers and added more branches to the tree of what rap could sound like. Behind their own stories though were the best writers of the modern era helping put records together. Some of their most iconic work (Lyte As A Rock, Black Reign, All Hail The Queen, nearly every SNP song) were crafted as group efforts. It doesn’t take away from the trails they blazed, but the idea of them being standalone disruptors to the genre is a false argument.
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| Nickelus F & Drake circa '08 |
Drake
Writers: Nickelus F, Quentin Miller, Kanye West, 21 Savage, Vory, Lil Yachty, Cash Cobain, PARTYNEXTDOOR, Majid Jordan, Kenza Samir, OVO Hush
From Day 1 the well was tainted. Early on his battle rap sensei and collaborator Nickelus F was exposed as the real writer to Drake’s verse on “I’m Goin’ In”, creating questions to those chronically online as to how far his pen has tatted up Drake’s pages considering they’d be affiliated since Comeback Season days. Over the years proof of reference tracks from Lil Yachty, Vory, Cash Cobain, Majid Jordan and Quentin Miller have popped up online and even played on live radio broadcasts. The hard proof is out there, along with a decades-long frustration with Drake’s Kirby-like ability to absorb whatever style he wants and tailor it towards his own goals. He’s rapped like a Jamaican, a grime artist, and a Bay Area native countless times, stealing slang and flows shamelessly. The man even dressed head-to-toe in Smino cosplay to a basketball game. Everything from Take Care to For All The Dogs has credits riddled with unknown writers who he himself has admitted either toss him bars or flows when writers block kicks in.
