(AllHipHop News) When news of Quentin Miller’s role in Drake’s songwriting process was revealed by Meek Mill, some in the Hip-Hop community wondered if it would hurt Drake’s credibility.
While the real impact of a Drake ghostwriter is questionable and likely depends on each listener, in a recent interview with VladTV Royce da 5’9” revealed he was “surprised” at the Hip-Hop world’s reaction.
In addition to that, he said that he no longer considered Drake as a top-tier lyricist after he heard word of Quentin’s role in the OVO songwriting process.
“Hip-hop is evolving a little slower than the other genres. If this is what it’s evolving into, as an OG I accept it, but I don’t choose to write like that,” Royce da 5’9” explained to VladTV.
In breaking down his thoughts, Royce said the crux of the argument lies in his definition of a lyricist.
“I think automatically the rules do have to change a little bit when you are talking about ranking these artists and where they stand as far as best lyricist. You still got to put him in there as the best artist, you are still a great artist by pulling the songs together that way. You can’t take that away from him, but when you talk about best lyricist, I guess it comes down to what being a lyricist is to you. What is a lyricist to you?,” Royce said.
In addition to that categorization, he said that he doesn’t consider Drake as better than Kendrick or J Cole, who reportedly have a joint project coming out together soon.
“To me a lyricist is a writer, the word lyricist and writing go hand in hand to me. So you automatically can’t be a top-tier lyricist if you not writing everything. You gotta write everything to be a top-tier lyricist in my book.” Royce said. “I’m not going to compare you to Rakim. I’ll call you the greatest of this era, but I won’t say you better than Rakim, and I won’t say you better than Kendrick, and I won’t say you better than Cole – as a lyricist”
Check out the interview below:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8CqVVDorX0]