By Sarah Thompson • 6 August 2014

The practice of ghostwriting is one of rap's biggest taboos, and yet many of its greatest hits were ghostwritten. So who are Hip Hop's ghostwriters and what place do they have in a style of music built on speaking from the heart?

In most genres of music, including Soul, R&B and Pop, being a songwriter is a legitimate career, but in Hip Hop, writing for another rapper has long been something to hide.

It was Chuck D from Public Enemy who described rap as "CNN for black people." Emerging from the poverty and deprivation of New York's South Bronx neighbourhood in the 1970s, rap gave the voiceless a voice. Because of this, rappers have a unique reputation to uphold. They have to be authentic, telling stories about their own individual worlds. They have to "keep it real".

"We expect it to be personal, we expect it to be from the heart and straight from that individual's experience," says Underground UK rapper Jehst. Others put it more strongly. "It's a travesty, anybody who calls themselves an MC and doesn't write their rhyme - no way you can even stand in the same room as an MC if you don't write your rhyme, plain & simple," says Grandmaster Caz, born Curtis Fisher, who made his name as Casanova Fly in legendary MC battles during the 1970s.

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