Frank Ocean’s Blond is finally here and while there’s a lot to unpack, there’s one verse that has everyone talking. On “Solo (Reprise)”, André 3000 comes through with a line about ghostwriting in rap:

With astonishment while I’m on punishment

Watchin' the summer come close to an end

After 20 years in

I’m so naive I was under the im—

—pression that everyone wrote they own verses

It’s comin' back different and yea that shit hurts me

I’m hummin' and whistlin' to those not deserving

I’m stumbled and lived every word, was I working just way too hard?

While André is generally reflecting on the current state of the rap game, it seems obvious that he’s also alluding to Drake, whose ghostwriting scandal and related beef with Meek Mill dominated hip-hop last summer.

André appeared on “The Real Her” from Drake’s 2011 album Take Care. But according to Drake, André initially didn’t want to collaborate with him. “Dre is one of those people that needs you to do a little more,“ he told Vibe in 2010. "He’s one of those people that believe in his craft so much that he needs you to do more than just be over hyped or just famous. In his mind, I have to prove myself and the truth is, I do.”

On that same night—the eve of his Thank Me Later release—he spoke on how much he idolizes André.

“I have a shrine in my apartment dedicated to Andre,” Drake told Paper Magazine. “I took a door off a barn and had an artist take the lyrics from his verses [and put them] on this barn door. As soon as you walk into my apartment that’s the first thing you see.”

In 2012, André told The Fader that Drake inspires him too:

“Now I talk to Drake, and I know he had to be like ten when he was listening to what we were doing. You just never know who’s listening until you hear a connection. I didn’t even know Drake dug my music, I just liked him as a rapper because I felt he had a balance. I didn’t even know that he grew up listening to me. But it’s cool to know that it’s a real lineage thing. I’m happy to see Kanye and Wayne and Drake and all these new artists. They inspire me in a way because they reach back and they say, "Hey, we want to get you on these songs.”

While Drake’s ghostwriting scandal made headlines, he’s not the only rapper who has had other people write verses for him. Kanye’s 2004 hit “Jesus Walks” was famously written by Rhymefest, and his most recent album The Life Of Pablo features over 100 co-writers, including both André and Drake on the song “30 Hours.” Even rap icon Nas was accused of using ghostwriters in 2012 by writer dream hampton.

It’s also worth noting that André’s line is similar to a famous lyric from Drake rival Kendrick Lamar on 2015’s “King Kunta”:



But a rapper with a ghostwriter?

What the fuck happened?

Oh no! I swore I wouldn’t tell

But most of y'all sharing bars

Like you got the bottom bunk in a two-man cell.“

Like Kendrick, André doesn’t name any names, but it’s hard to believe that he could write a rhyme like this without thinking about Drake. You can read the lyrics to his entire verse on “Solo (Reprise)” and the rest of the Blonde on Genius now.