Swagger Jacker?

Jay-Z is such a biter. Let's face it. I think it's time to call a spade and spade. He calls himself "YOUNG Hova." He CLEARLY stole the word "YOUNG" from Young MC. And the letters "J" and "Z" were taken from Sesame Street.

There's been a lot of talk about Jay-Z over his career (well, since Biggie died) and whether or not he's a biter. Oh, he recites so many of Biggie's lines...oh, he took a line from Snoop, oh, he bit from this person, that person...who gives a damn?

First, Biggie was his friend and he's done more to keep that friend's name in the street than any one of these people who claim Jay is a biter. Being one of the most influential rappers ever, that's a pretty big deal. Personally, i see it as an homage to Biggie, not stealing from him. Or to Tupac. Or to Snoop. Or to Slick Rick. It's not like back in the day, when rap was still in it's infacy and there were just a handful of rappers around. It's not like Big Bank Hank from the Sugarhill Gang supposedly stealing an entire verse from Grandmaster Caz and passing it off as his own at a time when there were like...six rappers and they all lived in the same borough of New York.
Today, there's history to draw from and rappers today will take a line from another rapper and spin it off into a brand new verse, or take that line and change it, but the cadence is the same so it evokes the memory of that old verse. It's like inside jokes for hip-hop heads. Those who know the history will get it.

So to me, it's not a big deal. And if it is a big deal, then so is Snoop remaking "Lodi Dodi" or that CD "In the Beginning....There was Hip-Hop," where there were like 15 remade hip-hop classics by other rappers. The positive to all of this is, when it comes out where that line or song came from, people who love hip hop will either be reminded of the original song or those who don't know will want to hear it. And I think remembering the history of hip-hop is very important. Hip-Hop as a whole is treated as disposable music, and that so many classics get forgotten as soon as they leave the charts...well, that's a pretty bad thing.

What is a big deal is when you got someone like Cam'ron calling Jay-Z out on biting, when he's done the exact same thing in his songs. For anyone who's heard "Swagger Jacker," just know that there's a song circulating with Cam'ron doing the exact same thing. I think Cam's just mad because no one's quoting his nursery school rhymes, while Jay-Z's multiplatinum rap career took him from the Marcy Projects to the top spot at Def Jam. Sounds like hating to me.

To bottom line this, though...I'm not really concerned about supposed biting in hip-hop. And neither is anyone else. People just hate Jay-Z, which is fine. If they were really so concerned about biting, then where was the outrage when your current favorite rapper, 50 Cent took a verse from Tupac and recited it, almost verbatim in a diss track about Ja Rule and Irv Gotti? He wasn't creative enough to make the verse his own, like Eminem did, so he just recited the verse and said "G-Unit" and added more cuss words. So don't turn a blind eye to one and condemn the other. That makes you a hypocrite. And a hater. Like Cam'ron. And I'm sure all of you are better rappers than he is.