Top 5: Five songs you didn’t know rappers wrote for other artists
Ghostwriting has always been taboo in hip-hop. There’s always been a belief that rappers should write their own lyrics and that any assistance in the process is damaging to their ability as an MC. Despite that, some of the best songs in the genre have been the product of musicians coming together to craft something special.
One of the biggest examples is Kanye West, who tends to include a lot of people in his songwriting credits. On the other hand, Drake has been criticised for using ghostwriters in the past. Famously, Quentin Miller wrote reference tracks that have gone on to become big songs for the Toronto rapper.
Still, the act of writing for others hasn’t always been frowned upon. Artists like Dr Dre, who is one of the biggest artists of all time, has been open about others writing for him.
Below, check out five songs you might not know were written by other rappers in the industry.
Five songs rappers wrote for other artists:
Jay-Z – ‘Still D.R.E.’
‘Still D.R.E.’ might be one of Dr Dre’s biggest songs, but Jay-Z actually wrote it. Hov served as a ghostwriter for Dre and Snoop’s hit from the 2001 album, which was originally about diamonds and Bentleys. Dre then requested something more relatable; within 20 minutes, Jay returned with something a bit more West Coast.
“On that reference track, I’m doing Dre and Snoop’s vocals,” Jay-Z said on HBO’s The Shop. “The reference track, it sounds like them. The Foxy [Brown] reference I’m glad nobody can find that one. But you gotta have somewhat a reverence for them. Obviously, the music they were making with The Chronic and all that.
“In order for me to really nail the essence of Dre and Snoop had to be like a studied reverence of what they were doing. Even to put myself in their shoes. ‘Cause think about that record. That record comes after Dre leaves Death Row. ‘How? My last album was The Chronic.’”
Drake – ’30 Hours’
Kanye West has had his issues with Drake over the years but he’s always complimented his writing skills. Although Ye came up with the initial ideas for ’30 Hours’, taken from his The Life of Pablo album, it was Drizzy who actually turned it into lyrics.
“I’ll be having like 12 writers in the studio that don’t add up to Drake,” Kanye said on Drink Champs. “That’s why I was interested when he heard ’30 Hours’ because Drake wrote that for me. I’m like, ‘Boom, here, I got this many ideas,’ like the line I had, ‘I remember being nervous to do Victoria’s Secret ’til I pictured everybody with they clothes off.’
“You could be nervous to do like a speech and they say, ‘Picture everybody naked,’ so we flipped it like, ‘I was nervous to do Victoria’s Secret ’til I pictured everybody naked.’ And I sent it to Drake, and Drake took it and barred it out and wrote the whole rap. You understand how much easier my life would be if Drake would just write my raps for me? I’m sure everyone wished they had that luxury.”
CyHi the Prynce – ‘Sicko Mode’
Former G.O.O.D. Music signee CyHi the Prynce was one of the many artists who helped write Travis Scott’s ‘Sicko Mode‘, which apparently damaged his relationship with Kanye West due to Drake dissing him on the track. CyHi has defended the act of writing for others, claiming he’s just there to help.
“When people say, ‘Are you a ghostwriter?’ – it’s not like I’m writing a song for someone who doesn’t know how to do it themselves,” he told HipHopDX. “They’re telling you like, ‘Yo, I wanna say this, I want the cadence to go like this, I wanna do this.’
“And in Travis’ defence, he had just had mouth surgery that day. So we were actually there kind of writing it together and I would just lay it for him so he could hear it.”
Joey Bada$$ – ‘Congratulations’
Post Malone landed one of the biggest singles of his career in 2017 with ‘Congratulations’ from his Stoney album. A little known fact is that Joey Bada$$ actually wrote the song, which peaked at number eight on the Hot 100 and went 14 times platinum.
T-Pain once claimed that the track’s original version featured himself and Joey, with the Brooklyn rapper revealing he was telling the truth. “This is facts,” he wrote on Twitter (now known as X). “I actually co-wrote the song w post 🙂 quietly got my first #1 off that. More ghostwriting in 2018.”
Despite his lack of songwriting credit, the Pro Era rapper appeared to be paid for his work on the record.
SZA – ‘Feeling Myself’
SZA may be a superstar in 2025, but she wrote music for other artists over a decade ago. Case in point: Nicki Minaj and Beyoncé’s ‘Feeling Myself’ from 2014’s The Pinkprint album. The TDE singer helped put together the song alongside producer Hit-Boy.
“I wrote parts of that,” she told Sway’s Universe. “A nice chunk of that [laughs]. I’m on the credits, so I think it’s really interesting. It was dope meeting Beyoncé. She’s tight. She’s perfect actually. Literally, like on God, it was something I could never explain to anyone. The call just got put in and then I arrived [laughs], I have no idea.
“Hit-Boy produced and I wrote the lyrics, so Nicki and Beyoncé are singing some of the things that I wrote to it. But [Hit-Boy] and I just work really well together, like we vibe together just because he’s such a cool kid. He’s not pretentious at all, for as accomplished as he is he’s just super welcoming and drinks like chocolate milk all day, honestly the nicest kid.”