[JACQUES] Calling rappers out for biting flows is a touchy subject and can end up in violence.
On October 21, during the Rolling Loud festival in Northern California,
A Boogie wit da Hoodie and PNB Rock allegedly jumped Lil B.
The altercation likely stems from a Lil B tweet on September 30th saying that he quote
[JACQUES] Lil B forgave A Boogie & PNB Rock immediately and they have since squashed their beef.
However, B’s first tweet highlights an intense debate in hip-hop should a regional flow
be co-opted away from home?
In hip-hop’s early days, “biting” or “stealing” was considered a capital offense.
Method Man: I give artists one piece of advice I tell em all as new artists don't bite my shit and you'll be aight.
Stealing entire verses can be chalked up to plagiarism
but borrowing cadence and delivery is different.
Sampling sounds is as hip-hop as rhyming itself.
Kanye: Hip-hop you know is like based on biting period.
Even though they say it’s biting because we take old people's music and jack it.
I think it’s all in how you bite.
Cross regional borrowing has happened before.
New York’s Biggie Smalls famously tried Cleveland’s Bone Thugs-N-Harmony's
double-time flow on "Notorious Thugs" in 1997
[JACQUES] As hip-hop has grown, flows transcending regions has become far more common.
[JACQUES] The Bronx’s Cardi B’s breakthrough single, “Bodak Yellow” benefits heavily
from her interpolation of Florida’s Kodak Black's flow
During an early October concert, Cardi took her detractors head on.
Cardi B: All these people telling me you aw bitch you
copied Kodak Flow, you copied this and that flow...so what bitch?
I’ma sound like all your favorite rappers, I’ma take all they flows and i’ma body it bitch
[JACQUES] Canadian rapper Drake’s verse on More Life’s “KMT”
faced similar gripes from Florida rapper, XXXTentacion
though X’s intentions were up for debate.
The line between “stealing” and “paying homage” is murky.
Compton’s Kendrick Lamar came out forcefully against artists who “bite” styles telling
Rolling Stone quote.
Fans have accused Maryland’s Logic of appropriating Kendrick’s flow.
Logic brushed off these claims in a 2015 interview with The Breakfast club.
Logic: If you love something, and you’re inspired
just do you, don’t tell somebody how they can make music or how they feel or don't feel.
[JACQUES] New York’s Desiigner received flak for his sonic likenesses to Atlanta’s
Future - prompting the latter to come out and state.
Future: “There’s only 1 Future in this muthafucka and I'm really the plug”
Desiigner: Do I sound like the man or something?
I don’t care about the man.
Cthagod: You’re doing the music, at least in "Panda."
Desiigner: Well it sold 10 million you dig what I’m saying?
It’s even better it is what it is.
Since Hip Hop is now global, artists take influences from everywhere making overlap
inevitable - but that doesn’t mean everyone likes it.
Check out Lil Reese pointing out rappers who co-opted Chicago’s “drill” flow.
Lil Reese: They take everything.
That’s how it goes.
They take it and then it don’t even really be official...but they take it.
[JACQUES] Elsewhere, other emcee's like Chicago's Chance the Rapper
and Philadelphia’s Lil Uzi Vert have used Atlanta’s Migos' “Versace” flow.
We never called nobody out.
We just having fun out here, creating a whole new sound.
Hip Hop has changed in a big way, so you can mark this down as we changed it.”
[JACQUES] But even that flow traces its origin back to Memphis’ Three 6 Mafia.
Taste is now the deciding factor dictating whether people care about similar rhyme patterns.
[Mack Wilds] If someone is going to tell me how they’re gonna rob me...
If you rob me.. cool you got it fam. You got it.
Whether you’re for or against stealing flows,
biting will always be a cause for debate.
But one thing is inarguable, the based god is a much bigger person than all of us.
I’m Jacques Morel with Genius News,
bringing you the meaning and the knowledge behind the music.
Peace!