Rap has always been assumed to be a personal artform. Whether the artist in question states it explicitly or not, the assumption is made that the performer has written the lyrics that he or she performs. (And performers receive aggressive criticism if it is believed this is not true.)
Personal authorship wasn’t always true at the beginning and remains so today. Sometimes people are publicly credited for writing verses or whole songs. Sometimes ghostwriters are used.
To cite just one example, Marvin Young (a.k.a. Young MC) wrote Tone Loc’s “Wild Thing” and “Funky Cold Medina.”
But I’m now seeing a series of articles about Jesse Kramer, a 24-year-old white guy who writes rap lyrics for a fee. Some of the posts and linkage I’ve seen seem to suggest that Kramer somehow delegitimizes rap, but without actually going to all the trouble of actually make a coherent argument along these lines.
For example, here’s a story from NPR, which is linked here with the phrase “a prominent hip-hop ghostwriter.” In fact, the NPR story doesn’t say who he writes for. It also doesn’t establish how “prominent” he actually is in the rap business. “I can’t say; it’s confidential,” he says in the broadcast interview.
Here’s a really snarky story on The Awl, which argues that Kramer gives the lie to the notion of treating Rap as Poetry.
Here’s an article at HipHopRuckus.com, in which the interviewer says, “It’s been alleged Rap Rebirth [Kramer's company] writes for mainstream acts.” Say, that’s a good point, all you journalists writing about Kramer. How do you know he actually does ghostwrite for major performers?
In an article in XXL Magazine, they say, “Kramer… says he services 30 to 40 regular clients, and a few well-known rappers have used the confidential service.” At the L.A. Times‘ Pop & Hiss blog, reporter Gerrick Kennedy writes that Kramer “claims that 10% of his work is ‘things that you’d hear on TV or on the radio now’ from recognizable names — though he declines to offer specifics.”
I am not arguing that Jesse Kramer is lying. I’m not even arguing that it’s unlikely he has ghostwritten lyrics for well-known rappers. I’m just curious about the evidence for his influence, especially if he’s being used to make larger points about the artistic integrity of hip-hop.