Do You Have To Write Your Own Bars To Be Considered A Rapper?

In this streaming era, the accusations of ghost writing come up a lot. Due to the exploitation of many 90’s rappers, fans are no longer in the dark about artist paying writers to write for them. Traditionally, rappers are clowned if they’re exposed for having a ghost writer (Ex: Drake’s 100 bands) but with it becoming more known, is it acceptable? Before we get into this let’s establish one thing first. Ghost writing is when an artist spits bars that they didn’t write but don’t any give credit to the writer. With that being said, ghost writing has been prevalent in rap from the very beginning but because of social media fans are finding out more about what goes on in the studios.

The question that is often being asked today is whether you have a ghost writer or even a known writer, are you considered a legitimate rapper? Well, in order to gain perspective, lest’s switch genres. There are many artist within pop and r&b who don’t write their music but are still considered singers. With that being fact, many will argue this same principle applies to rappers and in a weird way it does. Rapping is delivering a message through a poetic expression as is singing. If you are labeled as a rapper then you’re the person who’s delivering a message but it doesn’t necessarily mean that you wrote the message. Additionally, In artist like Drake’s defense, just because someone wrote a verse or a song for you doesn’t mean that aren’t capable of writing your own hits.

In this new evolution of rap, I think it’s important to re-define what a rapper is. A lot of the new rappers aren’t really lyricist but they deliver the message in a very creative way with the different melodies and slur of words. Often times you can’t even understand half of what they’re saying but it sounds good. Strange to say but I think rappers should be categorized as vocalist. Manipulating your vocals to deliver a message is a form of art and that isn’t always as easy as it sounds. Some people can write phenomenal verses but might not be able to deliver them vocally or have that “it factor” to catch people’s attention which is why you have ghost writers in the first place. There’s more to being a rapper then just writing rhymes, you have to deliver them as well but unfortunately that talent alone isn’t valued in hip-hop. Being a rapper and a writer are to separate talents.

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