"…But A Rapper With A Ghostwriter?! WTF Happened?"

The title comes from Kendrick Lamar’s hit “King Kunta”, a song where among other things, he calls out rappers who aren’t writing their own rhymes. The lyrics are relevant because of the currently ongoing feud between Drake and Meek Mill, centered around whether or not Drizzy has a ghostwriter. So it’s kind of as if K. Dot was onto something. Now that the dust has settled (for the time being, anyway) I have a thing or two I want to get off of my chest.

Things are very different now. VERY different.

First off, I will say that Meek Mill was out of bounds. Drake may or may not write 100% of his raps, but you don’t just outwardly snitch on that man. I mean, there really was no reason. Meek wasn’t provoked to “expose” Drake. Meek just felt some type of way, and took it upon himself to spill the beans. No bueno. Not to mention he kinda looks hypocritical, due to the fact that his boss was exposed for being a corrections officer and not the drug kingpin he portrays in his raps. It just looks bad.

On the flip side, there is blatant proof that Drake has in fact employed a ghostwriter in Quentin Miller. Not only are there reference tracks floating around (“Know Yourself” and “10 Bands”), but there is also the verse on Meek Mill’s “R.I.C.O.” where Drake appears to be rapping what Quentin wrote word for word. FYI: “R.I.C.O.” is apparently when Meek found out Drake wasn’t writing his own raps, and claims that’s the reason Drake didn’t help him promote his latest album Dreams Worth More Than Money.

“What’s the big deal? Everybody has ghostwriters”

As an avid lover of Hip-Hop, I have a huge issue with that statement. For one, I don’t believe it. Until blatant proof is provided (like it was with Drake) I won’t believe that emcees like Kendrick Lamar, Lupe Fiasco, J. Cole and more have ghostwriters. What really bothers me though is how an artist can be exposed as one who isn’t writing their own raps, yet nobody has a problem with it. What part of the game is that? Is that how this works, now? Are you really okay with rappers having ghostwriters? Or are you only okay with it because the rapper in question is your favorite? Because to be honest, I believe that if this was the other way around and Drake said “Meek don’t write his own raps!”, the Internet would be dragging Meek to Hell and back. I saw it happen with Bow Wow. While it was never really proven, it was always speculated that Jermaine Dupri, Da Brat and T.I. wrote all his raps. And for that, people would go on and on about how Bow Wow shouldn’t call himself an emcee if he’s not penning his own bars. The same should apply to Drake right? Right. But it doesn’t. Because Hip-Hop is clearly now a game of Stans and popularity as opposed to respecting the culture. Nowadays it’s okay to do something corny (like have a ghostwriter) as long as you’re someone “cool”.

This is Hip-Hop, man. This ain’t R&B, where you’re only judged on the quality of your voice. This ain’t Pop, where you’re only judged on having a certain look and being able to bust a few dance moves. This is Hip-Hop; the one culture where everyone in it is judged on how creative they can be. I don’t care if you’re Drake, Kanye West (who if you listen closely enough, you can tell he isn’t writing all his own raps), or whoever, if you’re not writing your shit, you’re disrespecting the culture, as well as the real emcees who are just as good as you (if not better) and don’t need help. And if you’re cosigning this fraudulent behavior, because you wanna play favorites, you’re just as harmful.

I knew I couldn’t trust y’all when y’all gave Rick Ross a pass.