Big Daddy Kane on rappers who use ghostwriters: “You really ain’t no MC”
Big Daddy Kane is undoubtedly one of hip-hop’s most respected MCs. The Brooklyn rapper was part of New York’s golden era during the 1980s and released multiple classic albums, including Long Live The Kane and It’s A Big Daddy Thing.
As part of the legendary Juice Crew, alongside MC Shan, Biz Markie, Masta Ace, Marley Marl and many more, Big Daddy Kane was a pillar of East Coast hip-hop. Kane was an integral part of rap’s growth in New York during the ’80s and is a Brooklyn legend.
That said, Big Daddy Kane is a true emcee who loves hip-hop and sees himself as a lyricist. As such, it is unsurprising that he does not love the practice of ghostwriting. Ghostwriting has always been frowned upon in hip-hop and is widely seen as a sign of inauthenticity.
Rappers, whether in the mainstream or the underground, are expected to write their rhymes and tell their own stories. As such, the notion of ghostwriting has always been hated in the culture, and during battles, it is always an accusation that gets hurled at some point.
Still, in contemporary hip-hop, seeing more than one writer on a single track is not uncommon. Drake has been accused of using ghostwriters on multiple occasions, and following his feud, Meek Mill, in 2015, admitted that the reason there are so many songwriter credits on his tracks is his collaboration with friends and associates in the studio who piece ideas together for him.
In a 2015 interview, Drake defended himself and explained to his fans, “I need, sometimes, individuals to spark an idea so that I can take off running.” He continued, “Music, at times, can be a collaborative process, you know? Who came up with this, who came up with that – for me, it’s like, I know that it takes me to execute every single thing that I’ve done up until this point. And I’m not ashamed.”
Still, this didn’t go down well with many. Since then, more and more artists seem to use ghostwriters and figures such as Pardison Fontaine loom large over the industry, reminding hip-hop fans how much we have allowed it to be normalised.
Big Daddy Kane hates the normalisation of and, in an interview, explained why he believes it has become an opaque yet accepted part of modern rap music, detailing, “With hip-hop – because it became so commercialised – it’s like the rules that apply to R&B and Rock ‘n Roll and Pop music now apply to hip hop! And those rules being that someone else can write a song for you.”
In fact, in the eyes of Big Daddy Kane, using a ghostwriter effectively nullifies your status as a rapper. Expressing this sentiment, he continued, “In hip-hop, if you ain’t writing your own material, then you really ain’t no MC!”
Although he showed his hate for ghostwriting, he did clarify that just relaxing and bouncing energy off other rappers and taking in recommendations in the studio isn’t ghostwriting. However, he sees ghostwriters as people who write entire songs for specific artists across genres.
Making this clear, the Long Live The Kane creator told Unkut, “Now a ghostwriter would be the stuff that I’ve done for Rick James or Positive K. Like Prince! Prince was a ghostwriter. Prince used to write stuff for other people under a whole different name. You didn’t even know it was Prince’ till years later. Now that’s ghostwriting!”