Why It's Okay For Rappers To Get Help When Creating Songs

"Now if Drake is over here and he finds a stair and it lights up, I'm not gonna be an idiot and say, 'Oh, I'm only gonna use my stair. I don't care about the stairs. All I care about is going higher. I'll step on Drake's stair and then I'll find my own stair."- Jaden Smith

A conversation has been going on about whether or not rappers should write their own rhymes. Sometimes authors don't even write their own books, so should rappers be responsible for coming up with every single lyric that flows out of their mouth?

Earlier this week Jaden Smith was featured in a video where he talked about being successful and ways to become better. He used a metaphor of walking up his stairs. He threw in Drake's name and said if Drake's stairs are lighting up then he'll walk up Drake's stairs too. Basically that means he could use Drake as inspiration while trying to find out what works best for him as an individual.

However, then Meek Mill pointed out something we all should have known. Drake has help in writing the lyrics to his songs. He even credits other writers on his albums. That means Drake sometimes uses other people's steps to get ahead. Meek's rant came from the fact that Drake is on a song from his new album, but never actually took the time to share the album to his own audience. Meek was looking for Drake to spread the word, but he never did. The reason behind Meek's outburst became null when some people actually started questioning whether or not Drake is a good rapper if he's not writing every single thing.

Not every author writers his/her own book. Author V.C. Andrews died in the 80's, but dozens of books have still been published in her name since then. Cornel West, one of our favorite Black leaders, has a ghost writer.

Not all singers write their own lyrics. Beyonce's greatest songs were not written by her. Rihanna's 2015 hit BBHMM has been done a million times by a million people in a million different ways. When we're waiting on a singer's album for years it's usually because they're not feeling the lyrics that are being handed to them so they wait for better writing.

Bernie Mac's Unsung episode came on this week. When other comedians were speaking on him, they mentioned how he studied the successful comedians that came before him. He wanted to know what others did right, so he could succeed too.

Should we expect rappers to come up with their own lyrics? Meek Mill does. We should expect them to have talent, but getting help never hurts. We all get help no matter what career field we're in.

Picture via Twitter

You can find me on Twitter at @mrsstarstatus.