The issue of ghostwriting has been present in hip-hop for decades, but it became a hot topic of discussion again in 2015 after Meek Mill accused Drake of not writing his own raps and having a ghostwriter. In a new interview with Time, Rick Ross opens up about his experience with ghostwriting, claiming that he’s one of the biggest ghostwriters in the rap game, even addressing the issue in a song from Rick Ross called “Ghostwriter”.
On the issue of ghostwriting, Rick Ross said:
“It most definitely made it a more personal record, it made it a more—I don’t want to use the word serious, but more a topic-driven record. I had a lot of time to just sit by myself, so I had a lot more things I wanted to address. That’s what I did on this LP. I spoke on different things. One of them goes by the name of ‘Ghostwriter.’ I finally wrote a record telling the way it feels for me to be a ghostwriter, and not only a ghostwriter, but one of the biggest in the rap game. Because of my own personal success I’ve always been able to keep that in the shadows. On this record, I just felt it was so current. It was needed.”
On whether or not ghostwriting is a bad thing:
“It depends on really the point you’re looking at. If you’re a battle rapper on the block, the emcee battle challenger, not writing your rhymes could really hurt you. When you’re an artist where maybe the focus is really the talent and the different things you bring to the game, I believe it’s more understandable. Someone who may have another vision or just ideas that are priceless versus someone who’s like, ‘I’m basing my entire career off the words I’m finna tell you right now over this 30-second period.’ I’m not speaking to anybody in particular, but let’s say for instance if you was DMX and had a ghostwriter, it’d maybe change the [perception] versus if you was will.i.am. I think that’s more about the music, the records.”