Legendary Brooklyn hip hop rapper Big Daddy Kane known for his classic songs Ain’t No Half Steppin, Smooth Operator, Young Gifted and Black, Show And Prove and others was on Drink Champs and he gave perhaps the best breakdown on how to categorize rappers who have ghostwriters.
Big Daddy Kane was asked by Nore what differentiates a rapper who writes his rhymes versus a rapper who has ghost writers.
Big Daddy Kane goes on to give a genius breakdown.
LYRICIST VERSUS PARTY ROCKERS
He starts by naming four of the most legendary rappers of hip hop, himself, Rakim, KRS One and Kool G Rap, of which he categorizes as “lyricist.”
Then he goes on to name another four legendary hip hop figures, Biz Markie, Doug E Fresh, Busy Bee and DJ Hollywood. He categorizes them as “party rockers.”
He states that the party rockers have a job and it’s to rock the party. Whereas, the lyricist job he states is to be lyricist. He concludes, “If someone writing our s*!t then we ain’t really lyricists.”
When Big Daddy concluded his statement he received an ovation from the Drink Champs in studio personnel.
REACTION TO BIG DADDY KANE’S RESPONSE
It was evident that his response resonated well with them as it has with numerous people who have commented on Big Daddy Kane’s response.
In the comments section, the comments included: I can dig that. That was a good way to break it down.
Someone else commented, perfectly articulated, and another comment reads, well put Kane.
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TODAY’S RAPPERS AND GHOST WRITERS
In today’s hip hop one of the things that can make it difficult to distinguish between a lyricist and a party rocker is the simple fact that we are not privy to which rappers have ghostwriters versus those who don’t, though we love to speculate.
With the exception of a few rappers, the ones who do have ghost writers don’t tend to admit it. Perhaps for fear of being called out for not being a lyricist.
Big Daddy Kane didn’t drop any contemporary rapper names of who might be considered a lyricist versus who would be considered a party rocker, but it sure would have been interesting to hear his thoughts.
What are some names of today’s rappers that come up to your mind when you think of a lyricist and what are some that come up to your mind when you think of party rockers? In other words, who in today’s hip hop circuit would you categorize as lyricists and who would you say are party rockers?
CONCLUSION
And as always we like to close with a saying, quote or adage and today’s is from Big Daddy Kane: I RESPECT ARTISTS WHO KNOW HOW TO BE ARTISTS, THAT KNOW HOW TO CREATE THEIR OWN LANE AND MAKE PEOPLE RESPECT THEM FOR WHO THEY ARE AND WHAT THEY REPRESENT.
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