Moneybagg Yo, Ugly God, Jim Jones and More Sound Off on Ghostwriting in Hip-Hop: Watch
Ghostwriting in hip-hop has long been a controversial topic, but once Meek Mill let loose with his Twitter fingers in 2016, and accused Drake of using a ghostwriter for songs that ultimately appeared on If You're Reading This It's Too Late, the issue with rappers relying on another artist's pen took on a life of its own. Despite that moment in hip-hop history, there are plenty of rappers who aren't fazed when it comes to ghostwriting. However, many others think it's still unacceptable. XXL went and got some of your favorite rappers to sound off on the subject.
Moneybagg Yo takes a judgment-free approach to the topic while aligning himself with one specific side: anti-ghostwriting. "I hate it," he admits. In his statement, the "All Dat" rapper notes that this generation of music listeners are not concerned with who wrote the song as long as it's a hit. "Really nobody really cares about who writes songs who don't," the Memphis rapper shares. "I'm one of them people like, I hate it, but like, I got people on my team that be like, 'Oh, you gotta do this.' You got some people who make hits and it be like 10, 12 heads on just that song. I'm just not a fan of that."
When it comes to Ugly God's opinion on ghostwriting, he states that the only people who are able to have a firm stance on the subject are rappers themselves. "As a fan or somebody who doesn't do music, you can't even judge if you can't make music yourself," the 2017 XXL Freshman affirms.
For Jim Jones, he uses one of his Dipset brethren as a prime example of ghostwriting's benefits. "Shit, it's a lucrative business," Capo begins. "I've seen Cam'[ron] ghostwrite for some of the biggest hits in our time, ya nah mean? This is hip-hop, it's entertainment, it's like wrestling, ya dig? You can't knock a artist on how he gets his point across or how he makes his hit."
While some rappers held on to their idea that ghostwriting does have a place in rap, Vic Mensa points out that the issue only lies in claiming a struggle that does not belong to you.
"Your favorite rapper is using a ghostwriter and that's because ghostwriting is not this cardinal sin that people have made it out to be, you know what I am saying?" he says. "I see it as collaboration... I think for rap becomes kind of problematic in like a purist sense, well, because we look to rap to be like the real reflection of these artists' lives or like from its origin, you know what I mean, reflecting the things that are happening in the streets or in the community... So when somebody is giving you a whole song to rap, so then it's not really your life, you know?"
Check out Ugly God, Moneybagg Yo, Jim Jones and other rappers like Jermaine Dupri, Maino and Yella Beezy share their opinions on ghostwriting in the video below.
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