In a recent interview with TIME, rapper Rick Ross suggested that he’s been maintaining low-key career ghost-writing tracks for other hip-hop heavyweights.
“I had a lot more things I wanted to address [on Black Dollar]. That’s what I did on this LP. I spoke on different things. One of them goes by the name of ‘Ghost-writer.’ I finally wrote a record telling the way it feels for me to be a ghost-writer, and not only a ghost-writer, but one of the biggest in the rap game. Because of my own personal success I’ve always been able to keep that in the shadows. On this record, I just felt it was so current. It was needed.”
Ross also stressed that, for some rappers, relying on someone else to pen their rhymes matters more than others, saying, “If you’re a battle rapper on the block, the emcee battle challenger, not writing your rhymes could really hurt you. When you’re an artist where maybe the focus is really the talent and the different things you bring to the game, I believe it’s more understandable.”