Talking of his fellow MCs, Jay-Z once rapped:
They’re all weirdos, De Niros in practice
So don’t believe everything your earlobe captures
It’s mostly backwards
Unless it happens to be as accurate as me
And everything said in song you happen to see
Then actually, believe half of what you see
None of what you hear even if it’s spat by me
It’s a claim often made by rappers: “Everyone else is lying in their raps, except me of course.” The assertion from Jay, though, is alarming. After all, he is a man who knows the industry better than most, and has made millions from his own hard-knock story. If he is telling us not to believe anyone’s lyrics, even his own, then what can we believe?
What do rappers lie about?
Rappers tend to lie about things that bring kudos. For years, Rick Ross rapped about life dodging cops as a kingpin drug-dealer (“Whip it, REAL HARD” and all of that), before it was revealed he had actually worked as a correctional officer in a local jail. Desiigner recently bragged of having “broads in Atlanta” on his hit track “Panda” before revealing that he had never visited the city and wrote the lyric because he’d been Facebook-flirting with one girl from the ATL. It’s also common knowledge that UK and US artists pose in cars and homes they don’t own in their videos. While it could be argued they are not explicitly claiming that they do, the desire to create an illusion of wealth for their audience is clear. In short, false-reality in rap is mostly found in claims of wealth, women and criminal activity. No surprise there.
How much do rappers lie?
It is difficult to judge exactly how much of what we hear is factually accurate. In 2013, the US publication Business Week compared the net worth of twelve high-profile MCs with the riches they rapped about. Eight of the rappers they studied grossly exaggerated their wealth on wax, including Nas, 50 Cent and Diddy. Can we take from that that 2/3 of claims we hear are exaggerated? Probably not, bearing in mind the limited size of the sample. However, their findings do suggest that a significant proportion of audacious statements made in rap are grossly exaggerated.
Why do rappers lie?
It is probably a sad reflection of the game that so many rappers lie. After all, on the face of it, lyrical content and flow have nothing to do with symbols of status. For a long time, however, wealth and criminality have been perceived as cool in the competition of rap music. To create this image, MCs often attempt to outdo others, with claims of better cars, bigger homes, more bricks. You can see why a bit of fibbing might be done. Rappers – like authors and actors – are in the entertainment business, and honesty doesn’t always sell.
Do we care?
On the face of it, listeners care about honesty. The revelations about Rick Ross and Desiigner (or even Drake writing his raps) generated a lot of criticism in the rap community. However, it’s done very little harm to their careers. Listeners, it seems, care more about the sound of songs than the honesty behind them, and it’s been proven that ‘money, cash, hoes’ is what the rap crowd responds to. So maybe we, as an audience, take some responsibility for dishonesty in lyrics. If we want our rappers honest, the goalposts need to be shifted away from the current axis to meaningful things that aren’t so quantifiable in numbers. The competition fundamental to urban music will continue to breed lies if it’s always about how much a rapper has. That is as true over here in the UK as it is in America. As Pharrell put it, maybe it’s time we “Quit talking numbers” and made rap what it always claims to be – real.