There are a lot of avenues to success in the music business. While most folks probably immediately think of performers since they’re the most visible product of the industry, songwriting is actually one of the most lucrative. Although songwriters might not receive as much attention and fame, they get a lot of love on the backend — unless they aren’t credited as writers, in which case, they’re considered ghostwriters and usually get paid up front for services rendered.
And while that’s still a pretty decent gig if you can get it, for potential stars like a young Jadakiss, it’s not enough without the spotlight. As Jadakiss told fellow New York rapper Smoke DZA on The Personal Party Podcast recently, the Yonkers standout “really hated” his early career role penning hits for the far-more-famous Puff Daddy (aka Sean “Diddy” Combs).
“After giving him ‘[All About] the Benjamins,’ ‘Señorita,’ ‘Victory,’ a couple remixes, I used to feel like it was taking away too much from me,” Kiss explains in a snippet of the episode on social media. “I ain’t know how to morph. It ain’t like he a n**** that I knew my whole life that I can just scribe him how I think he should be. I ain’t feel like I could write the bars for myself and give it to him, because I ain’t feel like it fit him. He had too much money. I was still extra grungy. My mind couldn’t think of that much Versace or being on that type of financial level. It used to conflict with me writing for him.”
As he elaborates, he felt that if he gave Diddy “Jada-style” rhymes, the glitzier Bad Boy founder’s image wouldn’t support the bars. However, he credits Combs for being able to sell them like they were his own anyway. “He just used to tell me, ‘Give me the shit that you would say for you,’” Kiss recalls. “I’m like, ‘It ain’t gon’ fit for you.’ He used to know how to make it work.”
To his own credit, Jadakiss has become a star in his own right, a highly-coveted and respected feature killer among his peers and contemporaries, and a fascinating repository of hip-hop history and behind-the-scenes knowledge.
Check out the full interview above.