I understand the faking the lifestyle part. That's been going on. That is sort of like the James Frey situation. For those who dont know, James Frey is an author who wrote A Million Little Pieces. A story about the hardships he faced in life and with drug addiction. It touched the hearts of millions of people but then everyone found out that the story wasn't his. He wrote it, but it wasnt true. And he was shamed for it because he said it was his autobiography. That's one thing. The art is still coming from his pen though, even though it's a lie. His way of telling it, is what led people to love it. So faking your story but writing it yourself, with your own style and storytelling skills that are unique to you is bad but not that bad in my opinion. Because you still put your artistic direction to use.
This situation is more like that movie The Words, with Bradley Cooper. He was a struggling author who never had what it took to be great. His books got rejected over and over again by publishers. One day, he finds a book written 50 years ago, by a man that was living overseas. It was a beautiful story about love and heartbreak and perseverance and tribulations. The man lost the book years ago, Bradley Cooper found the book 50 years later and put it out as his work. Naturally, book readers LOVED it. The honesty, the grit, the purity of it. And Bradley Coopers character blows up, until the man (who's still alive but old) and confronts him about it. He offers to pay him and the man declines. And Bradley Coopers character is never exposed, but he feels the shame in his heart the rest of his life.
These two things are entirely different. One is lying but still putting your artistic identity on it. The other is flat out taking everything that belongs to someone else.
I just don't like the idea of ghostwriting becoming an accepted thing. One of the reasons why I love Hip Hop is because how personal of a genre it is. Even with artists like Young Thug, he might be trash, but he's still true. I'm surprised at how many Hip Hop heads are okay with this, but it is what it is. The shyt is a lost genre and will be over with eventually anyway. It's a circus right now. But thanks for being honest.
As a writer (not a rapper) I just can't get down with someone puttin their stamp on someone else's words.
Every article, every column, every blog post, and every piece I've ever put down was mine, and that's why my name is attached to it. Writing in HipHop should always be a rule, and without it HipHop won't be the same.
The competitive layer in HipHop will be gone because no one will be responsible for their Work. Its Terrible
