Bite Me
written by Doesn't Matt R'
written by Doesn't Matt R'
Originality. Doing something that hasn’t been done before. Sometimes you’re ahead of the curve and people just don’t get it yet. You pave the way and make the road a little smoother for the next one up. Other times you hit the mark. The world happens to be ready and you’re lucky enough to blow up. Timing is everything and it always has been. But once upon a time in hip-hop there was a strict policy that everyone tried to follow. Before the days of “player hating,” there was a sign on the door that said, “No biting allowed.” It’s one thing to be influenced by the ones who came before you, but in previous days, biting would a crime punishable by excommunication. You didn’t jack an M.C.’s rhyme. You didn’t bite a writer’s tag, and if a b-boy crew was performing, you couldn’t recreate somebody’s move.
Lil’ Wayne recently spit, “And that was called recycling/or rereciting/ something cause you just like it/ so you say it just like it. / Some say it’s biting/ But I say it’s enlightening." Now I’ll give credit to Weezy, cause even in his repetition of others, he still puts an original spin on things. But more and more these days I’ve been hearing the same lines on repeat. Wayne also spits, “we are not the same, I am a Martian.” A month later, Game starts a verse the same way. Before Jay-Z could do no wrong, he was severely criticized for having at minimum one Biggie line per song. Now, he’s just biggin’ up his brotha.
Whose to say any of this is wrong? I’d just like to know where the “no biting” ethic went. What happened to the mentality that no matter what, no other man’s lines would show up on your track? Nas was the first to declare that hip-hop is dead. And that shook the community. But now you got multiple artists spitting those lines. Perhaps it wouldn’t even be a debate if artists spent more time coming up with their own concepts and not recycling what somebody else did.
5 comments:
BITE ME: I think some artist who get a chuck chewed out of them view it as a compliment. You know when your younger sibling tries to dress like you and wear your clothes, and imitate you? Its cute at first. But then you get to the point where your like, "YO, DO YOUR OWN THING". You used me as a blueprint to get yourself going, now transform it and make it better than me. As a fan, this is really annoying. It ruins a song when all the artist does is spit old punch lines. ITS REALLY REALLY REALLY ANNOYING. This should not be done in songs. FREESTYLING OK, but dude, you have a few months to come up with some lyrics and all ur spiting is old biggie lines. I can't remember the artist or song right now, but this was done recently. It was so much that it was over kill.
BITING should have its limits. Nibbling MAYBE, but DON'T BITE, DAMN!!!!
ALSO, GAME IS NOT A MARTIAN. He's barely allowed on EARTH... I don't think ET will accept him...
Now Im done :-)
Nibbling, not biting. Great way to phrase it. I feel like more and more lately I just hear the same lines on repeat. I had it written in here that Dream bit Jay-Z's line in "No Hook". In reality it was the other way around and Jay borrowed from Dream, so it got edited out. But I know I heard those songs within weeks of each other. It's to the point that without research, you can't even tell whose lines are whose these days.
Yeah I remember when biting was a cardinal sin in the world of rap. If you used any one else's lines for any other reason, you were a loser.
But it "sampling" was okay if you also gave credit or didn't pass it off as your own. For example when BIG said in "Notorious Thugs", "I'ma tell you like a n***a told me, cash rules everything around me."
Also its "okay" if you use a line that is clearly from a popular song. What's not okay is using a line from a song no one really knows and giving no credit. (i.e. the beginning of the 3rd verse of "99 Problems")
Like most things "biting" rules have changed. Sometimes its cool, but I feel ya Storm, it can get kind of annoying (c. the Game).
My favorit part of Success from Jay and Nas was the opening bars. It was a great intro.
"I used to give a ****, now I give a ****less// what do i think of success?// it sucks, too much stress."
Then I popped in the Marshall Mathers LP and sure enough, word for word, the exact same lyrics in I'm Back. Like Jus said, if it's a really really well known line (unless you're a bum rapper that hasn't earned the right to quote the greats) that's fine. If the person you're nibbling from is on the same track, that's fine. But if you try to pass it off as yours, and Jay is the poster child for that, it's trife.
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