What’s So Bad About Rappers Who Use Ghostwriters?

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately. I recently posed the question (on twitter) of why hip hop as a genre seems to crucify its artists after it is found out that certain artists employ writers. Without using any information I have been told and without injecting anything from personal experiences I have...well...experienced, I would like to be able to open your eyes and prove to you that the writer doesn't matter, its all about the music.

After I posed this question via Twitter, I was met with literally hundreds of responses. To paraphrase, they all said that 'hip-hop is different because in hip-hop you must be real and personal with fans'. Another argument was that hip-hop requires little to no skill so therefore the lyricism of an artist is what fans hinge their judgments upon. I think both of these theories are ridiculous.

Number one, every lyric of every song you have ever memorized is personal. Sometimes just to a target audience, sometimes to the whole world, but every song is personal. If it wasn't you wouldn't know the words. One of the main goals of songwriting is to convey a message that connects with the market you are writing to. Every song ever written exemplifies this. And to even think for a second that a genre full of songs praising those who get to experience the good life by passing through the struggle isn't a universal concept is egregious. The terminology may be particular to rap, but the elements and ideas can be applied to any sort of music to affect any sort of person. Take into consideration N.W.A.'s 'Fuck the Police', Twisted Sister's 'We're Not Gonna Take It' and the like. Exact same idea applied differently to intrigue different demographics.

The voice is an instrument. Anyone who disagrees doesn't understand music. There are many different ways to play any instrument and there are multiple variations of each instrument, i.e. tenor sax, acoustic bass, electric guitar etc. Follow me? If the voice is an instrument, is rap not just another style in which you can 'play' the voice? Yes I agree, when you rap, you traditionally utilize less of the human dynamic range but does that mean you don't play at all? A rapper HAS to have control of his instrument (voice) in order to be successful. Rappers take voice lessons. Breathing lessons. The same elements you associate with singing are very present in rap, but you assume since a rapper doesn't 'sing' that rap requires little skill. If an aspiring rapper had a nasally, out of breath, tired flow, but impeccable lyrics, you would think he was dope? Yeah I didn't think so. A rapper must be in control of his instrument.

Let's look at what writing actual means. Writing, in a traditional sense, means coming up with the lyrical, non-musical elements of a song. I have been writing and recording hip-hop for most of the last decade and I can think of very few instances where I wrote a song completely by myself. Most of the time, I'll have writing sessions, or what we used to think was just hanging out, where I surround myself with collaborators with the ultimate goal of making a song. Lyrics get tossed around, rhyming dictionaries get passed around. Simple trial and error with your peers. This same process is employed by many (basically all but I wanna leave myself some room for that one artist that someone randomly brings up to prove me wrong) artists. In hip-hop alone, if you look at the production credits of any song from any cd, more than likely you will find multiple writers getting credit for a particular song. Yes, this could just mean a hook, couplet, bridge, pre-chorus etc etc. It could also mean that a team of songwriters wrote the song, recorded a reference and then shopped the song to a multitude of artists until one bit the bait and chose to use it. Over the past few years, there have been reference tracks that have leaked for almost every huge project. A ton of reference tracks for Dr Dre's "Detox" have leaked, yet is anyone questioning Dre's artistic ability? J Cole has talked about references he recorded for "American Gangster", does that mean Jay-Z is less of an artist?

Someone brought up Jay-Z on Twitter claiming he writes ALL his material. Ummmm, no. Take one simple look at the singles from "BP3" on 'D.O.A.', 'Run This Town', and 'Empire State of Mind'. On those 3 songs, there are a total of 4 performing artists: Jay-Z, Rihanna, Kanye West and Alicia Keys. On those 3 songs, there are a total of 17 songwriters listed in the credits. 17 writers on just 3 songs!! What does that mean? Well to me it means nothing. Others would argue that it takes away from those songs because they weren't the artists' words. But why does that matter? Shouldn't the song be about....the song? If an impact is made, does it matter who wrote it? Honestly does it?

I did more research. On Biggie's "Life After Death", every single song on the double disc album, including interludes, lists multiple parties as contributing writers. Does that mean Biggie is less of a rapper? Not at all. Not in my book anyway.

I picked these big artists to prove a point, we only apply these judgmental criteria to artists who we want to belittle and not EVERY artist genre wide, or music wide for that matter. Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' is arguably the biggest song in recent history. Did you know that Michael is not credited for writing a word of it? No. Michael didn't write a word of his biggest song.

Why don't fans of other genres crucify their acts when they don't write every song? The Rolling Stones are possibly the biggest rock group ever. EVER. Yet, Mick Jagger maybe wrote half of their music. The Stones are beloved all over the world and have been since the early 60s. No one questions their artistic integrity. A friend of mine is a huge Queen fan. He posed that Freddie Mercury was known as an incredible front man and is loved for writing every word to every song. Ummmmmm, negative. Freddie Mercury, though a great writer, didn't come close to writing all of Queen's material.

The fact is, that back to the days of Elvis, Motown and the like, music has been an industry, not just a hobby. The music machine has been writing and piecing together hits to hand to the hottest artists of that day to perform, so that in turn the 'machine' can reap the benefits. It was even brought to our attention today (via MTV) that the current number one song in the country ("Nothin on You') was not written by its performer. The song was presented to Jim Jonsin and was intended for Lupe Fiasco. Do you think that means B.o.B. is less of a rapper? I'm pretty sure Bobby Ray is a modern genius, yet by hip hop's standards, shouldn't we judge his artistry now that this has been exposed? I didn't think so.

The fact I'm trying to drive home is that for some reason, songwriters have been used for decades and decades in every genre of music, yet fans of rap seem to be up in arms when they hear about a rapper with a ghostwriter. I'm not here to tell you what to do. I just want to ask you to be consistent, in everything, not just when thinking about music.

The last example I'll give is Drake. His first single ("Over') from his debut album, "Thank Me Later", contains a complete flow from M-1's verse on Dead Prez's hit 'Hip Hop'. Whole flow? Yes. Whole flow. Do we not listen to Drake? The opposite actually. We revere him as the next coming messiah of rap. What about his 2nd single 'Find Your Love'? My first reaction was, 'Wow. This sounds like a leftover from Kanye's 808s and Heartbreak.' Everything about that song screams Kanye. That means, so far, Drake is 2 for 2 in the unoriginal category. But we overlook that, because its Drake.

I'm not saying what is right or wrong, I'm just letting you know what it is.

(Follow John Stewart on Twitter: @theworldfamous)