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Lupe Fiasco Pens Open Letter on Ghostwriting Amid Meek Mill–Drake Spat

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Meek Mill recently accused Drake of not writing his own raps, and Lupe Fiasco responded to those claims in two Instagram captions where he advised rappers to “simply write your own rhymes as much as you can if you are able” — and where he admitted that “some of the most pivotal moments in rap have been ghostwritten verses.”

“Ghostwriting, or borrowing lines, or taking suggestions from the room has always been in rap and will always be in rap,” Fiasco wrote. “It is nothing to go crazy over or be offended about unless you are someone who postures him or herself on the importance of authenticity and tries to portray that quality to your fans or the public at large. Then we might have a problem.”

He went on to talk about how difficult rap is and how commercialization has affected the genre. “It redefined rap as just being a beat driven hook with some words in between and an entire generation has surrendered to chasing the format instead of chasing the art form,” he wrote.

The rapper doesn’t seem to be taking sides though: He went on to say he enjoys both Mill’s and Drake’s music and finds “inspiration and appreciation from both of them.” “At the end of the day, for better or worse, rap is alive even if some of its greatest moments are written by ghosts.” Read both parts in full below.

This article originally appeared on EW.com

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