I just don’t like ghostwriting. It is for the simple fact that I like my stories and music to reflect truth. As a fan of the Last Poets—whom I consider the forefathers of modern emceeing—I feel the practice of ghostwriting dilutes an emcee’s message. I always felt the purpose of an emcee was to be the voice of many and talk about what was going on in their community. When I first began writing this piece, I assumed anyone with a general knowledge or appreciation of Hip Hop music and culture felt the same. I originally had a preconceived idea about authenticity and the value of writing your own lyrics. Hip Hop is a communicative language, and I think it should be used to tell your truth about yourself and your environment. I think emcees have a responsibility for the platform that they have been given.
I learned many artists don’t mind ghostwriting and that it’s no big deal to them. I did find some common ground in Killer Mike, when he offered his opinion on the subject in his August, 2013 interview with HipHopDX by saying, “Rap is predicated upon [the concept of], ‘I am telling the truth about my life and my environment.’ So as long as rappers are presenting a rap in that way, they are going to be expected to be a writer of their lives and environment. It is that simple and not hard or overly complex. As long as the stance is, ‘Nigga, I’m real,’ then it is expected for them to be the authors. That’s it.”
The topic of ghostwriting has gained new legs off the strength of Nicki Minaj sending subliminal shots at Iggy Azalea and other emcees during Sunday’s BET Awards. Undoubtedly, when the conversation regarding ghostwriting comes up, the point of how one defines what exactly ghostwriting is should be addressed first. For me, the definition of ghostwriting is when an artist hires an outside lyricist or emcee, has them write an entire song, pays them an upfront fee and gives them no credit on the album liner notes or on the writing and publishing side. If an artist is given credit on the song or shares in the writing and publishing, to me that’s just collaboration.
What you’ll find below is a spectrum of opinions from various artists on the subject of ghostwriting. It’s important to note that people who draw the majority of their income from writing rhymes—either for themselves or others—have no problem with the concept of ghostwriting. After having done all this research and hearing all the views of the wide spectrum of artists that challenged my viewpoint, I haven’t changed how I feel about the subject. I feel if you are lucky enough to be given a large platform to speak to people, then you have an unwritten contract with your audience to speak your truth and elevate them. Otherwise, to me you’re not Hip Hop; you are simply in the entertainment realm or performing Pop music.
What’s Your Personal Experience With Ghostwriting?
Biz Markie: Big Daddy Kane helped me out with the last verse of “Nobody Beats The Biz,” and I would help him out with his beats for his album. It was like one hand washes the other. I told him everything to do.
Cool V: We would be in the studio creating stuff, and Biz would have the direction where he wanted the record to go. Kane was nice with the pen, so at the time Biz was putting all us on. He came with the beats, so he’d be like, “I wanna do something in this style,” and Kane would help him do it. Kane never gave Biz no style, and Kane never gave Biz no rhymes out his head where he was just like, “Yo, take that.” No, it wasn’t like that!
Scoe: When I got into ghostwriting, [it] was really through Kurupt. I had to do a lot of ghostwriting by myself where really I was writing for Warren G. I wrote for Puffy. I had wrote for all kinds of people. I was already into ghostwriting. The opportunity really came to me when I was just trying to transition, and I didn’t feel like putting an album out anymore. So it was something for me to do in between doing my shows that could still make big money. That’s what I was doing with ghostwriting. But when Kurupt put me with Dre, that just solidified it. That happened about two, three years ago…around 2010.
Alley Boy: With Atlantic, I felt like they would never push what I wanted them to push. I’d be like, “I don’t want to do no song like that.” They might feed me songs from writers and shit, and I’d be like, “Man, that shit wack as fuck. That ain’t no project stuff, and that ain’t no Trap beat.” I’m like, “If it ain’t that, then I’m like, ‘Fuck no.’” But then I just started moving around more, and I started opening up to the shit. I started bending a little bit for them, and they start bending a little bit for me, and then we can reach up in the middle. It’s good. Like right now we been working good. My A&Rs and shit, we go hard together now.
Are There Different Types Of Ghostwriters?
Money B: That’s the whole idea behind ghostwriting: you are writing and no one knows it, therefore you are a ghost. I actually think that’s the definition of it—to not be able or willing disclose that you are are the actual writer. Nowadays, you have a lot of ghostwriters and Hip Hop is becoming like R&B, which is not a terrible thing. It’s only bad when the artist performing claims the ghostwritten song is theirs. This is the issue I have a problem with.
Lil Debbie: Am I there to creatively direct, and will I sit with someone for seven, eight, nine, 10 hours? Yes. Definitely. It’s never just one person working on it. And I hate every white, female artist sitting there fronting—completely fronting—that they wrote their own shit. So many people do it! People’s favorite songs that are on the radio right now are ghostwritten. Period. I don’t see what’s wrong with it. It’s done a lot, and the media is just so blind to it. They think one artist can do everything. There is not enough hours in the fucking day for artist to do everything you think they’re doing. That’s just the way it is. I’m just not gonna be the artist that lies.
Eskeerdo: The process depends. If you’re in with the artist, you both are collaborating on some ideas, you might not even write on the record. You might just be there for energy purposes…for direction. That has a lot to do with the creation of a record too. Or if you’re in the submitting process, you might have a hook and you might have a track with a hook on it and go like, “Oh, I heard Meek [Mill] was looking for some records…cool.” That’s how it happened with “Mayback Curtains.” I was working with Big Sean and he said, “Yo, I think this shit would be tight for Meek.” So we went over to Meek’s studio, played it for Meek, and then Meek took it from there. And then, John Legend jumped on the hook. Nas jumped on it, and [Rick] Ross jumped on it. And that’s a perfect scenario for how it just comes about—a day in the life of me. So if I’m not in with the artist, I’m constantly shopping music to these artists.
Killer Mike: I’m usually writing a record that’s not a radio record, so for me, it’s heartfelt and is based upon some type of emotion. When I write that record, I want to make sure I’m best representing that artist. Now if I just bring that person that record, and that’s not who they are, I don’t like those records as much. I don’t appreciate them as much, because I feel like a person undeserving got a great song. I feel like a person who really doesn’t live or convey those words has a song that has been wasted. And that’s where I take contention. But if you got a Top 40 hit, and I wrote or someone else wrote it, I’m not mad at that, ‘cause I understand we’re in an age where, “This is rapping and Hip Hop,” and there is songwriting for commercially driven artists.
Ghost Stories: Debunking Common Myths About Ghostwriting
Read enough about ghostwriting, and you find yourself in a position of debunking myths about the subject. Up until recently, it was widely assumed Nas wrote Will Smith’s track “Getting Jiggy Wit It.” Nas set the record straight, in his April, 2014 Reddit AMA session stating, “Alright, let’s clear this up once and for all. I hung out with Will in the studio. And watched him write it. It was a fun studio session, and I said a line or two or three to him. It wasn’t that serious. Will Smith wrote that song. But seriously, I watched him have fun making that record on his own, and Will is a true emcee.” You can further confirm Nas’ comments when performing an ASCAP repertory search for the writers of “Getting Jiggy Wit It,” as many names are listed but not Nas government name (Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones). Nas has been on both sides of ghostwriting accusations, with claims that both dead prez and Jay Electronica penned portions of his lyrics for his 2008 album, Untitled. dead prez member stic.man shut down the accusations in a 2012 interview with HipHopDX.
“The co-writing, idea sharing, production that I was able to do was truly an honor for me,” stic.man explained. “To be in the booth with Nas and see how he just oozed style and sharpness, for me, it invigorated my craft. Certainly he doesn’t need a ghostwriter, but for him to appreciate what I do enough to share some ideas and to have the opportunity to do that, that’s brotherhood.”
There’s also a few infamous claims by Jay Z, which Jay himself helped spread. On 1998’s “Ride Or Die,” Jay bragged, “S. Carter, ghostwriter / And for the right price, I can even make your shit tighter.” Turns out he was correct. By now, it’s common knowledge Jay wrote some of Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg’s “Still D.R.E.” He’s listed in the song’s credits but doesn’t actually appear on the song. There’s also another set of rhymes Jay penned which are a bit more, shall we say, animated.
“We did a licensing deal for Jay to ghostwrite lyrics for the Bugs Bunny character for the Space Jam soundtrack,” Combat Jack revealed in a 2012 interview with Joe La Puma. “Warner Brothers took some time in getting Jay’s fee to him. Damon [Dash] used to pressure the shit out of me to pressure the shit out of Warner Brothers. He used to complain that Jay didn’t care how slow it took for industry money to come because he was accustomed to how fast drug money came in. Dame used to say how much Jay, as his artist would stress him out for money…”
Believe it or not, ghostwriting is even a debated issue within the Battle Rap circuit.
“The thing about ghostwriting for somebody is even though you might be dope as a muthafucka as a battler, if they find out you ghostwrote for somebody else they may not like you no more,” Bigg K said in an interview wit BattleRap.com. “Which is gay because you’re still dope. They shouldn’t be mad at you. They should be mad at the dude that paid you. But that’s just how fans work. If you knew how many of your favorite battlers say shit that didn’t even come from them, you might not like the people you like, bro. Some people’s favorite rappers don’t even write all of their rhymes, bro. So you shouldn’t get crucified in fuckin’ Battle Rap for it when some of the favorite songs you listen to, they ain’t write that shit. I don’t believe ghostwriting should occur in Hip Hop, period. It’s not ghostwriting when you’re a singer. You have the voice or somebody writes you the song. You have the voice for the song. But as far as somebody writing you a verse in Hip Hop—why are you even special enough to be a star if you ain’t even writing your own lyrics?”
In August of 2005, Ma$e made claims of originating some of Big L’s more memorable lines saying, “Big L brought me on the scene and I used to rhyme with him…when they used to do records. God bless the dead; they would never put me on the records. But all of the hot lines he was saying—and even in his grave I gotta tell this—those were my lines. I used to say those lines in the park, and they would put them out in song.”
Pete Rock, who was also a friend of the late Big L, was more skeptical about Ma$e’s claims.
“I don’t know about that, I can’t buy that,” Pete replied, while talking exclusively with HipHopDX. “I don’t think so. Big L; that’s my man. I used to pick him up and he used to come off the head, so that’s definitely not true.”
New Views On The Decades-Old Practice Of Ghostwriting
What does this all mean? Have we transitioned into a time where monetary gains become more important than artistic integrity? Technically, ghostwriting is nothing new. It’s openly known Grandmaster Caz had his original lyrics to “Rappers Delight” stolen by Sugarhill Gang. It could be a case of us being in the Internet age and finally having access to information from artists on the matter. Or maybe the media has been feeding us a myth about what really goes on behind the scenes of our favorite songs.
My intent with this article is to try and begin a debate with the hopes of bringing the modern emcee back to the source of what I feel is the original intent of their jobs—community poets and the voice of many. The opening lines from the Last Poets’ song “Hands Off” can best summarize my views and frustration on this subject:
“Tell me not that I’m a dreamer for the things I feel and see / Or that nothing can be accomplished from the things I wish to be / Tell me not that I’m fanatic for the things I feel inside / They are flowers of oppression, born of a pain I cannot hide.”
RELATED: It Was Written: Nas, Ghostwriting And The Ideal Of Sole Authorship [EDITORIAL]
Maxwell Benson Is Winnipeg, Canada native and founder of Maxwell Benson Entertainment Ltd. His full-service entertainment company specializes in photography, journalism, animation, music production, film scoring, and tour booking. Follow him on all social media @maxwellinfo.
See for me ghost writing is trash… never changing my mind. Look you can say “hey everyone else does it, so its fine right?” FUCK NO, lets not get caught up in that shit. I love rap for it’s raw and real feeling but the problem is in recent years we have been pulling away from that and rappers have been lying for years about how hood or gangter they are. Examles include people like Lil wayne and Rick Ross. Real hip hop heads don’t buy that shit only mainstream wana-be’s who got into rap their freshmen year of collge. LOL Come on! this isn’t Pop music this isn’t R&B this is FUCKING HIP HOP DOG and WE HOLD our ARTISTS or should be holding them to a higher standard doods! Someone in there said “hey, Yo, we don’t have all the time to write the rhymes.” Well fuck you and do it. I could care less if you CD’s come out every other day it matters to me more that it is authentic. END
Well Said Forsure!!!
Yeah but some of your favorite rappers or Hip Hop legends had ghostwriters, soo…
maybe thats why 2pac had so much material and we felt him bc he was so real? I dunno just a thought
shut up
Slippery slope here. If you nice your verses should be for hire, but integrity kicks in and rappers shouldnt use ghostwriters. How you going to get some songwriting credits to boost the publishing catalog?
Composing has always beena vital part of the industry so it shouldnt astound anyone that rappers have ghostwriting opportunities. Lot of historic songs are ghostwritten for high in the studio agreement prices, not publishing.
I dont believe anyone is paying for ghostwritten albums, but songs, yes, khaled has a ghostlabel people
What I don’t understand is Young Money/Cash Money use ghostwriters, so is Nicki talking about her labelmates and bosses as well? if not, stfu
Nas wrote Get Jiggy wit it. The fact that he said a few words here and there and was in the studio when the song recorded and even was a legit writer on four other songs prove that he had a good hand in the song. Nas also wrote Doctor Dre’s The Watcher.
jay z wrote the watcher
Nas wrote the watcher Jay wrote Still Dre
Eminem wrote The Watcher. Not Nas or Jay.
Eminem wrote The Watcher. I own the CD, it’s in the booklet.
ummmm… seriously. RAKIM wrote the watcher
correction RAKIM wrote dres verse on the The Watcher 2 on Jay-Z The Blueprint2
Bottom line…in Hiphop, artists create, if you don’t create your music you’re just a performer, so don’t go around claiming to be a dope MC unless you write your own shit. This isn’t RnB or any other genre where you have to know how to sing and carry a note…in Hiphop you rhyme, it’s supposed to be lyrics driven and if the lyrics aren’t yours then your just performing someone else’s art. When an artist records a song then sends it to you and you memorize it true to form like a child memorizes their favorite song on the radio, YOU ARE NOT AN MC. The only fun in ghostwritten songs is trying to figure who wrote them…listen to a P Diddy album, and try to figure out who wrote what, you’d be surprised how easy it is
MC means move the crowd right? Big Daddy Kane couldn’t perform the way Biz Markie performed, it’d look too weird. THe way BIz said his words and what not just didn’t fit into BDK’s style. So yes you’re performing someone else art but your performance is your own art. You can’t take away that from an artist; god knows most of these artist are terrible performers.
It all depends on how well the ghost writer delivers the performers way of thinking and personalit. Basically. Y’all gotta kick it for a minute. My N.I.G.G.A. The D.O.C. NO BODY CAN DO IT BETTER!
I meant No One Can Do It Better -_- follow me @theSmokeSession
This just puts up a whole nother level t guessing the message behind the lyric. Rap Genius thinks they know it all.
lil debbie is greatest rapper of all time.
Funny how Nicki is talking ghosting writing but fails to bring up Lil Wayne and Drake. They are the two biggest artist that use ghost writers. That whole camp is going down now. Nicki sees her stock going down. lol Its amusing at best.
Especially since Pill n Potions was co-written by Ester Dean and two other people. Talk about being a hypocrite. SMH
Y’all realize Ester Dean came up with the hook right? She put it together with the two producers (who automatically get song writing credits nowadays even if they don’t contribute to the song). I’d say 90% of rappers and overall musicians nowadays don’t even come up with their hooks. They lay down the verses the majority of the time, as Nicki did.
And you can tell Ester didn’t “ghost write” for Nicki because the verses are NOTHING like Ester’s solo material. Get My Dough, Twerkin 4 Birkin, Drop It Low, etc. But, you can definitely tell she came up with the “I still love” part of the song.
As one of the MCs in the article said, it’d be a problem if Nicki said she wrote the song by herself and didn’t give any Ester any credit… She did lol.
+ Nicki said when she SPITS, you know it is from her not when she SINGS. She has never claimed to always write her singing material.
@Matthew: I was just about to say that. Some of the folks here reading comprehension isn’t up to par.
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I know Nikki Minaj isn’t talking about someone ghostwriting; she’s probably hasn’t wrote a lyric in her whole life. my thoughts, I don’t like ghost writing but its a necessary evil. MC blah might write some tight ass lyrics but if he puts it out nobody listens. He gives the lyrics to lil wayne all of a sudden the song sells gets 100 of thousands of downloads and so on. It isn’t just one artist either; I think all of our popular artist use ghostwriters in one form or another whether they admit it or not
comments like this is why she said what she said….gtfoh with that sexism
i heard eminem wrote most of 2001
“Its either my life or your life, and i aint leavin, i like breathin” when i first heard that line i immediately knew em wrote that ish. Ghostwritin’ has always will always be part of hiphop for better or worse.
Az never lost his step with the lyrics but the beat does need work. I feel like kanye would have done something serious with this sample.
Wrong page. lol
An opinion piece really…hip-hop’s based on credibility, something you lose as an artist when your rhymes are ghostwritten. A comedy rapper like Biz having songs ghostwritten by a friend is one thing, but rap is huge business now. The line is now that if you can’t be bothered to give the fans what they want for the money, you don’t have to. To them I would say, get some motivation and inspiration, or stop fleecing the fans and quit.
Royce also said he help wrote Dr. Dre and Diddy with some verses/songs.
Oh yea why leave out rapper Skillz, he said in his songs and I think a interview he ghostwrites for some people.
I’m no fan of ghostwriting, although for certain artist it’s a necessity. As much as Diddy sucks as a rapper, he would be a hell of a lot worse without ghostwriters. Shit, occasionally a good song will come out of it like ‘The Future’ which sounds like Diddy doing a karaoke jam of a Pharoahe Monch song.
Ghost Writing is essential to most artists career in some form or fashion, at one time LaLa Anthony was making an attempt to be a emcee this is before she married Melo, and she couldnt write, but my team wrote the records for her, we didnt make up any details, she literally told us what she wanted to rap about and she gave us stories about her life that we penned into records, the whole ghost writing ghost producing thing is overblown, no one is a juke box you cant pop a quarter into an artist and get a record, when you have pressing deadlines sometimes you have to get help especially with concepts, I know dudes who are ridiculous hook writers theyll give you a club record in 5 minutes but then again I know some dope story tellers and verse writers, for example D.O.C was a dope emcee but then he had the car accident so he wrote most of the Chronic records for Dre, should he be silenced as a writer because he can no longer physically get on the mic? Chronic is a classic and it wouldnt have happened without ghost writing.
Hello Anonymous
If you read the article we defined Ghostwriting as a person brought in paid an upfront fee and is given NO credit on the publishing or writing end. Hence the word Ghost!!
D.O.C who I think is dope was given writing credit if you look on the album notes or discog for his skills on Lil’ Ghetto Boy, A Nigga Witta Gun, The $20 Sack Pyramid, Lyrical Gangbang off the Chronic. So by our definition his is not a Ghostwriter.
Now to your comments on LaLa all I say is Lord have mercy dont get me started on that one LMAO!!
How did you do an editorial like this and not once mention Skillz? Dude practically made a career out of ghostwriting.
Hello Don
We tried multiple time to contact Skillz!
Puff Daddy had 2 of the best writing his rhymes (jadakiss and pharaoh monch) and he still sounded like shit. One the worst I ever heard no flow n a terrible voice for it. Dr Dre is the only one I don’t care bout who wrote his rhymes cause his beats make up for it and im still waitin on DETOX like a fool
Eskeerdo has written for a bunch of these artist check the credits Crazy!
thanks for putting me on.. I checked wikipedia and found all his writing credits. DAMN – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskeerdo
Andre 3000 from Outkaz last year said that T.I has ghost writers, but he didnt say “Ghostwriters” he said it in a slick way
Great Article!
I’d say since Nicki sparked this conversation, a good honorable mention should have gone to the Lil Wayne ghost writing accusations that have been around for like 10 years. I remember back in circa ’06-’09 you couldn’t read an article about Wayne without accusations of ghost writing. And when Drake came on the scene, everyone was like this is Wayne’s ghost writer.
I think Wayne might have had a bit of help in like Carter 1, but since then, the mixtapes, the rest of the Carters etc, ghost writing claims have mostly been false.
Fact is, this is hip hop, you might get a hot ghost written single, but people aren’t going to buy your album and induct you into a pantheon of legend if they suspect that you spitting someone else’s rhymes.
it’s funny, lil wayne could use Gillie RIGHT NOW. he is beyond garbage.
There’s a lot of Ghost writing in hip hop like Gillie the kid did for birdman ask anyone cause the words he was philly words not New Orleans words he never wrote for Wayne all u have to do is listen to philly slang words then listen to New Orleans slang words and decide for yourself oh Wayne wore Gillie chain that’s all
This was a great piece… I don’t know if you ever read that book where they interviewed over 100 emcees, called “How To Rap”, but there is a LOT of information in there from loads of legends about ghostwriting as well whether they think it is ok to write fictional content.
Worth a read if you haven’t read it already.
It’s funny that Nikki is bringing this up when her own Bosses use ghost writers lol!!
@HipHopDX @Maxwellinfo because of this stupidity writers dont get credict. Wacc artist use they crew to steal lyrics reshape it in their own handwriting and then claim they wrote it. They still a wacc rapper. They should give props to good writers. All the industry’s have writers and acknowledge them. The rap game for some reason rather lie like they dont collaborate. Just a bunch of wacc artists stealing. Then when a real artists give props to their writers and crew the facc always have to find a way to defend their behavior. It takes a team. Entertainment is made up of producers, writers, performers, actors, singers, but the facc denies the real. Michael was a world success because of his team. Maybe if that facc rapper would have given props to writers she wouldn’t have had to pump her body with facc silicone for a gimmick to be desirable. Real dont get record deals then have to alter their apperance for sales. The true art and talent sells it self.
Fuck what lil debbie thinks lol her music is trash.
Is it correct that you can expose some ghostwriters if you have an l.o.c.-ID and use the copyright file info? Something like that was written in the “ghostwriters exposed”-thread on slumz.boxden.com (famous “ghostwriters-list”) (link below)
http://slumz.boxden.com/f87/the-definitive-ghostwriting-exposed-research-thread-will-keep-updated-936314/
@Maxwellinfo: Is it truth that you can expose ghostwriters if you use a copyright file app.? I have read some stuff like that on a website (link below, it seems to be the famous ghostwriters-list…)Does copyright give you an info about stuff like that?
http://slumz.boxden.com/f87/the-definitive-ghostwriting-exposed-research-thread-will-keep-updated-936314/
real mcee gotta write 4 himself
I agree with the writer of the article. I am okay with it as long as it is a collaboration with the artist. But if someone is writing your entire song then there is a problem. Hip hop is an art form, and an emcee is appreciated both for his writing and rapping.
Dre and Diddy get a pass as they don’t hide the fact that they are not writing their stuff. Plus they have respect in the hip hop world for their own accomplishments.
Great work. There is too much scandal. They need to change this area. There is a young girl that got her notebook stolen and its all over the radio, she recently found out even though its been happening for over 8 years! Talk about fucking with someones head!
It won’t be a good ending for her. She’s been through a lot. Now she’s heartbroken 5 times over. God bless her.