(AllHipHop News) The practice of ghostwriting once again became a major topic in Hip Hop after Cardi B addressed Pardison Fontaine’s role as a credited co-writer for her “Be Careful” song. Rappers using other rappers’ pen game for their songs has been happening in the culture since the 1970s (see Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight”).
However, it’s very rare for recording artists to actually talk about recruiting another person to assist them with lyrics. Veteran rap star Shad “Bow Wow” Moss chose to openly discuss his use of ghostwriters in an interview with Genius.
According to the Atlanta-based entertainer, several legendary Hip Hop acts like Kurupt, Da Brat, Jermaine Dupri, Jadakiss, and T.I. helped him with creating rhymes. Bow Wow also hinted that a very well-known emcee admitted to him that he also used ghostwriters.
“I ain’t gonna say no names, but it’s a lot of big dogs in the game – and I know this for a fact because he told me,” said Bow. “The n-gga was like, ‘I ain’t write none of this sh-t. But because I got the look and I’m stamped and because I’m a icon and I got that muscle behind me and they know I done did my sh-t, but I ain’t got time for that sh-t no more.'”
Numerous Hip Hop artists have been accused of using ghostwriters. There have been reports/rumors that Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Diddy, Nas, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Drake, Lil Kim, Snoop Dogg, Nicki Minaj, Ma$e, Jim Jones, Fat Joe, Foxy Brown, Big L, and others have gotten help writing their raps.
“Just know a lot of these n-ggas – even the ones that we consider legends and ‘Oh my God, he’s a god emcee’ – they done had songs written for them,” added Bow Wow.