“Biting,” or good theft vs. bad theft in hip-hop
(Chart from Steal Like An Artist)
From a recent interview with A Tribe Called Quest:
PHIFE DAWG: We pretty much were always into being ourselves. We didn’t want to be like anybody else back then. Biting was forbidden. You pretty much get slapped up for biting.
MCEVERS: Explain biting for people who don’t know what that is.
PHIFE DAWG: OK, MC so-and-so has a line that he originated. Another MC comes along and takes it. Nowadays, it’s pretty popular, unfortunately, but back then that was a no-no.
Snoop Dogg tries to explain the difference between biting and paying homage (in his definition the “paying” part of “paying homage” is not metaphorical):
“When I came out as a rapper, everyone had their own style. If you sounded like someone else, that word was called biting. ‘You biting my style, you biting my sh*t.’ If you paying tribute, like I did with “La Di Da Di” with Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh—I paid n*ggas who I grew up loving. I’m gonna redo your song, get you paid all over again, and let everybody know it’s your sh*t, and put a twist on it for the new kids who don’t even know it exist. That’s a different way of showing love as opposed to everyone rapping the same style.”
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