Memphis Bleek fires back at Dame Dash for saying Jay-Z wrote his rhymes

Some might've noticed that there's a constant argument about ghostwriting in hip-hop. On one side, there's people who say it's fine. Oftentimes, those who share that opinion are the fans who began listening to rap after it dominated the charts and entered pop realms. "So if pop singers can have people write for them, why can't rappers?" is the question often seen online.

On the other side, there's people who are against ghostwriting in rap. Those folks, who are usually older, seemingly want artists to recognize the cultural aspects of hip-hop, which has to do with rappers writing their story, as opposed to letting someone else write it for them.

That's probably why Memphis Bleek, who's 46, has a problem with his former Roc-A-Fella boss Dame Dash saying Jay-Z wrote his rhymes. It's something that Dash said during an interview on The Art of Dialogue.

“I don’t think Bleek wanted to take over . I don’t think he had the ability to," said Dash. "Jay was writing a lot of his rhymes. So if Jay retired, that meant he was out of business as well. Ask Bleek about it. I can understand Bleek’s loyalty to Jay, because he had Jay as a ghostwriter. I probably shouldn’t have said that, but he’s been talking about me lately. I didn’t think it was a secret. I thought everybody knew."

Dash then said he always had to push Bleek to release an album and accused him of depending on Jay-Z to do everything for him. Bleek later responded on X and denied his claim.

"He wilding right now bro," tweeted the Brooklyn rapper. "I wish maybe I still be lit ... These type of conversations Dame sparking is the reason #RocSolidPod gotta Drop‼️ 2025 we talking bout all this s--t ... And people said I was whack 🤔 so if Jay wrote for me he whack to."

Jay-Z hasn't responded to any of this yet. Probably because he never weighs in on disagreements like this and is occupied fighting his sexual assault civil suit.