Ghostwriters exposed

[A pimp named Sarkozy]

JACKED the THREAD too!!

From my recent reading of posts here about ghostwriting...and alot of myths/rumors people trying to pa** off as fact here...I figured it's time to start up a real official convo about ghostwriting in hip-hop, and expose who uses writers.

Ghostwriting has been and is part of the business that often gets a negative connotation. It's a structured phase that whether you need one or not is apart of any 'artist development' process at a major label. Like someone had mentioned, unless you have worked with (or at) some capacity in the music business; you're not exposed to the real definition of ghostwriting; and you'll always have a bad vision of it. The difference in those days was these people were writers, not rappers, and fortunately always stayed unknown. Nowadays with more money involved, writers actually wanting publishing, etc-etc...the business of writing has gotten messy.

Do I condone ghostwriting? Not entirely, because (myself being a producer/rapper) I write my own lyrics, hooks, and notes to music...but it's apart of the business that always opportunities for others - so I can at least respect it.

It's always a double-edged sword...some of your favorite rappers have ghostwrote for people; while some of these 'ghostwriters' have allowed others to ghostwrite for them for 'creative brainstorm' purposes and to give up-and-comers opportunities. The best example is Biggie - he had the total package (voice, flow, persona, delivery, freestyling, etc) - but little known was that he publicly OFFERED opportunities for new rappers (Mase, Camron, D-Dot, Jadakiss, Charli Baltimore, etc) to write for him either in exchange for deals, or label opportunities. Did he really need it? - NO. Was it a gester that helped start some of these rappers careers? - YES. Did Biggie ever lose any of his popularity for giving 'opportunities'? - NO.

One of the most infamous stories was how Mase got discovered, which Diddy has discussed many times. Mase was at a music conference in ATL, in search of 'only' Jermaine Dupri to give him his demo, with a young Diddy & BIG only in attendance to network. While JD was nearly a no-show, Diddy was able to beg a listen to Mase's demo. After liking some of it...after the conference - Diddy and BIG put Mase to the test to 'freestyle' a verse NOT on the demo. What he spit impressed them so much, they later wanted him to use it as a verse as a feature on 112's first single "Only You". Historically, after praising him, and exchanging contact info -- Biggie & Diddy offered him an opportunity. They gave him 3 days to write a verse for Biggie for 112's "Only You". If it was hot enough for Biggie to record, Mase would get signed. It was, and he was signed.

Conclusively, ghostwriting is apart of the business that is just as important as production and marketing. I had helped write an article on 'ghostwriting' for New Times Magazine (down here in South Florida) a few years back --- so I have tons of more stories & situations. For those interested, please feel free to ask aight.

PS --- I still have my credit research I used in my input for the magazine article...I'll post that up in the next post -- so yall can actually see some of the 'CREDITED' ghostwriting done in hip-hop.

IF YOU HAVE CREDITED PROOF OF GHOSTWRITING (able to look up through copyright claimant research/publishing research) - then please add to my list below. I'll try to research and add a few more per week. ENJOY!

[blak boy]

Ghostwriting, Pretty interesting Topic and one that gets a lot of flack in the ego ridden Hip Hop genre. It's weird that in other forms of music songwriters exist who write tracks for singers and this is an accepted part of music, yet in hip hop this is frowned upon because it's not about the quality of the track only but also the fact that the MC wrote it on his own and that is where an MC's credibility lies. hip Hop is an anomaly in certain ways and this explains some of it aspects in contrast to other music genres. There have been many cases (rumours) that a particular MC ghostwrote for someone else but this is always generally accepted if the one MC using a ghost writer is a subpar MC ala Dr Dre or Diddy. I Think there really shouldn't be a problem about ghostwriters because it is all about music being written and released and therefore it is in the interests of the genre and at the same time there is the question of this altering the hip hop industry as we know it. It is not really a matter of a question of quality even as things will even out and you will always get ghostwriters on both ends of the spectrum. I remember doing a show where me and Nappy head where talking about Ghostwriting being one of those cousin type elements of hip hop and actually ghostwriting has been here for a long time. I remember reading interviews on how Ice Cube basically wrote most of the rhymes for N.W.A and even certain tracks foe Eazy E. and Biz mark was alwayz being ghostwritten for by your BDK and all those Juice crew members.

I would like to hear about other cases as well as this will shed light on what might turn out to be a more prevalent practice in hip hop circles than most people think.
in terms of SA hip hop i think it is almost unheard of, right?

[K9 tha Pedigree]

That's why I ain't even a lil wayne fan no more coz he a** got exposed for this shit, n he was 1 nigga from the south i actually had respect for