But when you actually sit down to look at the songwriting credits on famous tracks, the writers often come way the hell out of left field. For instance ...

It's no surprise that musicians don't write all of their own songs. Hell, with all the boy bands and Justin Biebers of the world, you assume it's all done on some assembly line anyway.

6 A Barely Known Rapper Wrote Puff Daddy's Heartfelt Tribute to Notorious B.I.G.

Continue Reading Below Advertisement

The murders of Tupac Shakur and Christopher Wallace (aka the Notorious B.I.G.) stand as some of the darkest moments in music history, and nobody seemed to be quite as grief stricken as Bad Boy Records founder Puff Daddy.

Getty

For months Diddy refused to do anything but look longingly out of the nearest window.

Continue Reading Below Advertisement

In the months following the death of his close friend Notorious B.I.G., Puff released a tender, heartfelt tribute song called "I'll Be Missing You." You can tell how heartfelt it was because Puffy felt it was worth ripping off an entire Police song for the music:

But as for the lyrics, you can see Puff Daddy reaching back for his most personal memories of his friend:

Seems like yesterday we used to rock the show/So far from hanging on the block for dough/Words can't express what you mean to me/Even though you're gone we're still a team.

Hmmm ... hold on. A quick scan of the songwriters reveals three names, none of which are Puffy.

Continue Reading Below Advertisement

Two of them should come as no surprise: Faith Evans, who sings the chorus on the song and also happens to be the wife of the late rapper, and Sting, who happens to own 100 percent of the publishing rights to the song because, you know, that's who Puff stole the music from. But the third name is the mystery here ... Todd Gaither.

Youtube

Who in the hell is Todd Gaither, you ask? Our team of Internet researchers has confirmed this to be a barely known rapper and former Jay-Z protege who goes by the stage name Sauce Money, assuming he's even on stages anymore these days.

Continue Reading Below Advertisement

Here he is in a Vibe magazine interview discussing the process that goes into making Puff Daddy seem capable of actual human emotion ...

Writing for Puff is easy, he gives you the blueprint, the direction. He tells you, "I wanna say this." For "I'll Be Missing You" we sat down and he told me what he wanted. And being as that my mother had just passed not too long before, I just added sprinkles in there.