Great post.
You've gotta look at the context each time an emcee borrows a line from another emcee.
Jay was the first example I could think of where he took a few bars from a non-single (I Just Wanna Love You). It was controversial at the time. Obviously they were close so you could see the paying homage aspect. But it wasn't just one line - it was a few bars. Plus it wasn't a song everyone would necessarily be familiar with. But Jay was a dope emcee - so its not like he couldn't pen hot shyt on his own.
The paying homage argument with Drake seems very shaky. It just smacks of laziness on Drake's part. Or worse. He did this twice on his own album...I guess this is his thing now - borrowing half of someone else's verse.
I find it interesting too, that a lot of the Drake stans tend to be the ones who make the ridiculous claim that hip-hop in the 90s was wack or not lyrical, but here their hero is borrowing heavily from a 90s rapper. Not even one who was considered an elite level lyricist at the time. I wonder what they think of that, or if congitive dissonance prevents from even realizing what's going on? At this point, I've got pretty much all of them on ignore, so I guess i'll never know! @
Taadow - let me know if one of them says something that isn't nonsensical about that.