In an open letter addressed “to rappers from a rapper,” Chicago, Illinois lyricist Lupe Fiasco offered his thoughts on the debacle between Meek Mill and Drake. Earlier this week, Meek called out Drake for allegedly not writing his own raps.
Lupe posted his open letter in two separate uploads to his Instagram profile, yesterday (July 22).
In his open letter, the Windy City wordsmith stated that “Ghostwriting, or borrowing lines, or taking suggestions from the room has always been in rap and will always be in rap.”
Lupe later went on to address the art of lyricism and spoke on the “sense of liberation and self-esteem” that can be obtained by expressing oneself through rap.
“…The point is that what pursuing the craft gives us in terms of the intangibles is something that record sales or fame could never represent,” Lupe Fiasco wrote. “We achieve a mastery of language and poetics that competes on the highest levels of discourse across the entirety of human history. We express ourselves creatively and attain a sense of liberation and self-esteem via this sacred mode of creation and communication.”
The rapper addressed both Meek and Drake by name in the second part of his open letter. He stated that Meek calling out Drake over the authenticity of his raps “struck a nerve” in Hip Hop.
Lupe also recalled receiving Drake’s mixtape while in Toronto years ago, before the singer/rapper reached fame.
“Meek Mill struck a nerve accusing Drake of having a ghostwriter and the entire rap world reacted on all sides of the fence because rap is alive,” the rapper wrote. “It’s active and it feels. Its rules and traditions are vibrant and responsive. I enjoy both these brothers music and find inspiration and appreciation from both of them. I remember being in Toronto at Goodfoot years ago and it was a stack of CD’s on the counter and the guy behind the counter was like ‘Lupe you gotta take this CD. It’s my mans mixtape.’ I didn’t really pay it any mind I took it to the car and looked it over and just kind of set it aside focused on other things. I vividly remember saying ‘what kind of rap name is Drake?’ The rest is history.”
For additional Meek Mill and Drake coverage, watch the following DX Daily:
you reap what you sow; you write what you spit
but we talking about drake, not gza. drake ain’t hiphop, said he’d never drop a hiphop album, he sings, harmonizes hooks, why hold him to hiphop standards. end of the day heads don’t know the difference between writing an emcee’s raps or selling songs, yall got lupe writing abridged novels to smite the ignorance
Lol abridged novels
Respect to lupe. This guy is the hip hop James Baldwin minus the homo stuff. Shots out to the real MCs. Create awareness
Drake’s legacy is forever tarnished. It’s officially OVOR. Good riddance.
Okay this is my first comment on any website…ever. Felt I needed to say something cos I really don’t get this whole thing of writing your own lyrics or not. Who gives a damn? I’ve been listening to hiphop since the early days. Do you think dr. Dre wrote all his lyrics? Or snoop or lil Wayne? Are all the songs Whitney Houston sang not great just cos she didn’t write the music and wasn’t her experience? I really believe black people need to start seeing things more holistically. We go at each other in a way I never see any other race do. Why? Who cares if drake wrote or didn’t write his stuff? All I know is there is a lot of people jealous of the guy and I’m not even a big fan of his. Just speaking the truth. We really need to stop all this crap. This is 2015. Who cares who writes what lyrics and why. Doesn’t matter anymore. And another thing, stop commenting on how fake Rick Ross is. Just makes you look ignorant. In case you didn’t know, it’s a persona. A character. It’s art. It’s not real. I never hear anyone question Quentin Tarantino or Martin Scorsese movies. Like krs one said, you must learn!
whitney huston? nigga that’s singing rap is street shit we don’t do that in the streets. I would laugh at a nigga coming up too me like “hey bro can you write a song for me?” but if a bitch was like write something I can sing. Or if I knew chris brown and he was like I’mg going to sing not rap a song your write I’d be like coo i gotchu. hip hop is for real niggas only. shout out meek
I kind of agree with Boi. But to me, it’s not so much that ghostwriting is bad, it’s that as a hip hop community, we’ve come to a consensus that it shouldn’t be allowed. It’s a rule in the game.
The people who are saying who cares listen to rap not hip hop. Drake said he is the leader of the new school but you can’t say that and have someone write for you. Why listen to drake just listen to the dude on the refrense track. Drake is the middle man cut the middle man out! I can’t support someone that doesn’t write and mean what they say! I can listen to them but I won’t buy or go to there shows or respect them. Diddy has hit I like but I know he didn’t write them. When Dre raps I know it’s not him but he is a beat maker so I support cause he is contributing and making a collabrative album. Drake says he is coming for the thrown but it’s all his ghost writers. I always wondered why labels like ovo and cash money sign a lot of artist but never release them. Its cause they are the writers behind the scenes
bullseye
The World is filled – Biggie
Listen to biggie’s opening bars. Where’s that from ?
His raps are to consistent to have a ghost writer. You claim you can tell if someone wrote a rap for another artist but you telling me you can’t tell Drake raps the same content and uses the same flow. Listen to Compton by K-Dot featuring Dre. You can tell easily Kendrick wrote that Bc of How Dre spit it. Meaning he heard Kendricks verse first and how he spit it on he beat(reference track).
Ghostwriting is not taking suggestions and taking inspiration from other work and these fucking idiots know it. Ghostwriting is having someone else write your fucking lyrics. It should not be encouraged and people need to stop being assholes about this.
I can tell you not a rapper
@The Best, we can tell you ain’t a rapper either, what rekkington said is correct, this subject should not be encouraged, especially in the rap game.
I dont understand who on Earth would want to claim Drake’s wack lyrics, if someone said I ghostwrote Drake’s music I would deny it to the grave
There’s a difference between Drake and you, and it has nothing to do with hip hop. He’s successful at what he does and you’re just aspiring. If you got paid 5K a month, I’m sure you’d be satisfied with being Drake’s ghostwriter.
This corny ass nigga needs to stop and think aboutt why he isn’t even in the same league as big sean meek mill or any of the tier 2 rappers let alone the rap god drake. This bum is so irrelevant it’s not even funny. Most people forgot this emo loser exists after chief Sosa threatened to smack the shit outta him.
Just cause he’s not gangster rap or street doesn’t make him corny. Whats corny is you saying rapper thats right he’s just a rapper(Meek Mill) is better than Lupe who is a lyricist is corny. I can tell your between the age of 16-25, cause no Grown Man in listeneing to hip Hop his whole life would say something that stupid. Its funny who you new kids now a days who grew up in the worst generation of Hip Hop thinks you guys have it all figured out. Go learn your history and quit embarrassing yourself.
The same Sosa who can’t go back to Chicago because he’s marked? Exactly.You don’t know shit how street politics work here. BDK
I can tell first guy Drake Runs Rap didn’t even read the article. You guys are clueless when it comes to hip-hop. It’s just a trend for you guys. Drake run rap? I would respect your comment if you even said Drake makes the best music. You talking about him running rap, like its a competition. You don’t have to defend these rappers and get caught up in your feelings. Scroll up and read what he’s trying to say and learn something.
Its always best to write your own lyrics but of course you might have to borrow and have others help. But writing your own gives you the power of creation and forcing your craft in new directions that’s authentic to you and helps grow the craft. Doing your own writing forces you to digg deep into your soul and bring out things only you could’ve brought out….and gives you a rhythm, feeling that’s all your own. Like Jay Z said, A Blueprint…..
To bad Jay Z uses credited writers.