"i got 99 problems but a bitch ain't one" - ice t. (one of many lines bitten by jay-z)
Remember back in the day. You'd be chillin at some neighborhood spot. Dancing and listening to music. Then a bunch of pissed off brothas would enter the party looking for someone. When they found him, fists flew, girls screamed, and people bounced. And the next day, after word had gotten back about what really happened, you come to find out the dudes who entered the party were rappers. And the dude they beat down? Some kid who had been biting their shit! How times have changed.
Fast forward to '06. The new phenomenon in hip hop is biting. Biting, as in blantantly passing off as your own, a line or song, written and created by someone else. For years it's been cool in hip hop to say, "like rakim says..", then quote him. Snoop Dogg even re-made an entire Slick Rick song, while giving Rick props on the track, in his attempt to pay tribute. But now cats are just plain wildin'. Anything that sounds good to them, they are taking, sometimes switching it slightly, sometimes, not at all. Everybody is doing it, from underground heads, to the most established and known heads in the game. (It's so bad that XXL has a Loaner/Donor section which highlights emcees who loaned the line out, and the donors who borrowed it.) Keep in mind, hip hop is in the mixtape era where, it's considered cool to jack someone's beat, and often times, their hook. But when a guy at the top of the game bites lyrics, while creating songs people are heralding as classics; a guy who millions of lesser known rappers emulate and aspire to be - a huge amount of the blame for this current biting epidemic that's killing hip hop has to be placed on his shoulders. Especially when he seems to borrow MORE THAN ANYBODY IN THE GAME.
Early last year, a little dj mix hit the airwaves that illustrated the proficiency with which Jay has been biting. The dj would play a Jay line, then play the rapper's verse whose line it came from. People, there were over 20 or so examples. This week, Camron of Dipset fame, revisited this notion, with his own spin on the "i'm a biter not a writer" themed track, renamed "Swagger Jacker". Cam's version is very similar, but uses a few lines that weren't in the original. Cam compared Jay-Z's constant biting, to finding out the former home run king, Mark McGuire, was on steroids. Interesting comparison if I say so myself. Unfortunately, Cam is widely viewed as a knuckle head without widely respected hip hop credibility. So his message is gonna slide right off the backs and ears of most. However, it makes you wonder, how would hip hop respond if it was KRS-One who was calling out Jay-Z for biting?
I know, I know. All you Jay-Z fans are out there spewing, "Jay is nice with his, he don't have to bite". And to all of you I will say, my point exactly. Jay is probably one of the nicest dudes to ever do it. But, if you look at his excessive list of people he's bitten, you quickly begin to understand, he is also one of the laziest to ever do it. Let's say we give Jay the benefit of the doubt. Let's say he has no idea he's biting. Let's say Mr. I Don't Have To Write My Lyrics Down is accidentally stealing while writing in his head. So all those lines he borrowed from Big, Nas, Snoop, Rakim, Slick Rick, Big Daddy Kane, let's say they were accidents. (Jay dissed Nas on the Blueprint album, and turned around and bit a Nas line on the same album) Even if this were the case, his coat tail has been pulled enough that you'd think he'd be like, "okay, that sounds familiar, let me check to make sure I wrote it". But dude ain't doing that. He's walking around with that swagger like "I'm the man", "I'm the best". And so are all those little rappers who look up to him, as they continue to bite their favorite artists. At some point, hip hop is gonna have to set some standards, some rules. It's probably gonna take a Premo, a KRS-One, a Bambata, a Chuck D to come out and just really denounce biting in a major way. And if they do, they can't just aim their criticism at the smallest guys in the game. Eventually, someone is going to have to aim towards the top. Until the message actually reaches the biggest biter in the land, Jay-Z.
listen to "Swagger Jackin" here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=bED9wMqQ1i8
7 comments:
1st up - biting is what commercial hiphop was built upon. Let's just go back to 1979 when Big Bank Hank of the Sugarhill Gang stole Grandmaster Caz's rhymes for "Rappers Delight."
2nd - Cam'Ron right now holds more weight in what is considered hiphop, b/c hiphop is about the youth - as he points out in his actual diss track. Dipset is like this club or gang that everybody wants to be a part of nowadays. Though people are still throwing their diamonds up, a lot of young cats are wearing pink and purple and rocking bandanas the way Juelz does. There are a lot of youth who don't even know who Chuck D or KRS ONE is.
3rd - I do think that Jay-Z's I make my rhymes up in my head style of rapping is culprit for all of his biting. It's in his head floating around and it fits into the song. He may not, at the time, be thinking about where it came from, but...
4th - You are absolutely right. A lot of young rappers do look up to Jay-Z. Lil Wayne bites his style and his lines. T.I. and Cassidy have sampled him in songs.
5th - Other than Nas, Jay-Z hasn't really done much battling. After 50 made "How To Rob," Hova did respond with: "I'm about a dollar, what the f--- is 50 Cent?" And most recently he did a freestyle diss to Cassidy and Game that eventually turned into "Dear Summer." I don't know if he wants to give Cam the heat. I mean that in the sense that he just may not acknowledge him based on pure fact that he knows Cam has a record coming out soon, and this beef could help him out.
i havve this dvd where Caz said Big Bank Hanks needed some rhymes and Caz handed him his notebook, not thinking nothing of it, and old boy took some with him. unfortunately for Caz, the song blew up. that sounds less biting, and more like ghostwriting.
stealing ONE time can be looked at as paying homage. hell, stealing two or three times can be looked at paying homage.
but 29087439875203450978 times is just unacceptable! lol
plus i do think it's one thing to borrow from the generation that birthed you. prince took something from james brown, andre 3000 took something from prince. but it's a whole other thing to steal from your peers, cats you are so called greater than, cats that you may even have beef it. unacceptable!
Great piece. Yeah I agree, Jay-Z biting is unnecessary the same why it is pointless for a great point guard to shoot three's all day. You're right, it is laziness, and you hit the nail on the head when you said that the "swagger jacker" would have had more weight if it wasn't coming from that "dressed in pink assclown" Cam'rom.
What Pablo Picasso meant by that was that genius could take what was great (and not necessarily obvious) about someone/something else and make it their own in a way that could not be denied them.
Whether or not Jay is a genius is an argument for another time, but straight biting a line does nothing to make it yours, it IS lazy and it DOES disrespect the artform at its core (you're just word choice and delivery on a beat, right?).
Commercialism doesn't care about art, you'd say, and Jigga would say he's a hustler, not a rapper. That's why he's been such a success, perhaps; aside from talent, the will to do whatever he flet like and not give a fuck if that meant taking advantage of peoples' ignorance instead of elevating the audience and the artform.
Biting is wack, you can't possibly argue otherwise. He doesn't need to do it, he shouldn't, but he does. Arrogance and success are no excuse for wackness.
www.myspace.com/thewonderbloodetchings
Basically, American hip hop is becoming a joke. Whether or not Jay-Z bites lyrics is really irrelevant. What needs to be addressed is not what one of the most intelligent rapper is saying of doing, it's probably why most rappers have diamond on their teeth!
We all know the lines that were borrowed. Biggie use to do it, everyone did it at one time. I see it more like a simple salute to the older heads. You can clearly see that he was a hip hop fan. What's the big deal! Oh he said I got 99 problems but a bitch ain't one! Who cares. Listen to most of your commercial hip hop, listen to most of your R&B.
You think Jay's lazy, American music in general is Lazy! Cassie, Pussycat Dolls, Mike Jones, DFB, Dipset; nobody wants to work hard to create a good product, it's all about who can make the most profit the fastest.
I would suggest that you celebrate your smart rappers; your "grill-less" rappers. They are the only reason you are still ahead in this hip hop.
American music and mostly hip hop is a straight joke!
Nas is right, HIP HOP IS DEAD!
Nicely put. It's clear who's in it for the money. The shit comin' out of all these new rapper's mouths is worthless. Hip hop is a culture, a way of life that has now been prostituted and fuck you if you think this new shit even compares to the old school artists, much respect to digable planets, 2 pac, q tip
Post a Comment