Life is good, but life may have been just a little bit better last week for Nasir Jones.
Allegations are flying this afternoon that legendary emcee Nas’ ninth studio album Untitled (Nigger), released in 2008, was largely ghostwritten by Jay Electronica and Stic.man from Dead Prez.
For those unaware: When an artist performs a record and takes credit for writing that record without giving credit to others for their contribution to writing the song, when in fact someone else actually wrote the song’s lyrics, the actual person who wrote the song is considered a Ghostwriter. Ghostwriting is about as old as hip-hop itself and ghostwriters are compensated for their work, it is simply not made public.
While both Jay Elec and Stic.man both received producer credits on Untitled (Nigger), Nas himself, as recently as last week, maintains he has never used a ghostwriter.
Dream Hampton, a film maker, writer and co-author of Jay-Z’s book Decoded, made reference to Nas’ ghostwriters on twitter and even addressed Frank William of rappersiknow.com saying that she herself heard reference tapes for six songs. In a posting on his website, William spoke of a conversation he once had with his friend Jay Electronica, where Jay informed him he was ghostwriting for the Queensbridge legend.
Jay Electronica has yet to comment on the matter, while Stic.man took to twitter and facebook to voice his support for Nas.
A few takeaways:
1) The reason this is a big deal within the hip-hop community is because true emcees, or lyricists, are still the backbone of the genre. Nas is widely considered (including by myself) to be one of the very best to ever step in the booth. Though his career has had ups and downs, he could always hang his hat on his superior lyrics.
Hip-hop was founded on truth, and if it turns out the truth behind Nas’ rhymes was compromised, it could result in a severe blow to rap diehards. This accusation is a shot at his credibility regardless of whether or not Hampton or William intended it that way.
2) I don’t believe Hampton or William intended to harm Nas’ credibility. From the available information at this time, there is no evidence that either would intentionally try to sabotage Nas’ good name as an MC. In fact, both were very complimentary of Esco in their respective recounts of the ghostwriting story. If either party did have an ulterior motive, it will likely come out in the coming days, if not hours.
3) Nas’ track record as an artist is so stellar, he has earned the right to be found innocent until PROVEN guilty. And the only way he could really be proven guilty at this point would be if those reference tapes were to surface.
and 4) Suppose Nas did recruit Jay Elec and Stic.man to ghostwrite for him. For many, it will create probable cause to question the source of his rhymes for his entire career. However this reasoning seems specious because this is the first anyone has heard publicly of Nas getting help with his rhymes in a 20 year career, and all parties involve still seem to revere him.
We’ll be following this story as/if it progresses.
UPDATE: Jay Electronica defended Nas via twitter on Aug. 14 essentially saying Nas’ legacy and reputation should never be questioned. Perhaps this will put an end to the whispers that Nas received helped writing his Untitled (Nigger) album.