It is commonly thought that the plight of ghostwriters is an unenviable one, with forgotten and obscure figures like Pardison Fontaine showing a strong pen game and writing for such rappers as Cardi B, former girlfriend Megan Thee Stallion, and Kanye West, among others, while being denied the sort of fame and recognition that would normally result from being a skilled wordsmith. Things may not be the way that they would seem on the surface. If Fontaine, for example, only has a solitary top 40 hit to his credit as a rapper, he has certainly written many well-regarded and popular rap songs and probably has made a good living for his writing. Interestingly enough, he appears to have been made uncomfortable by the recognition that he has received from Cardi B and Kanye openly acknowledging his writing songs for them, and this suggests that for the serious ghostwriter, anonymity can give someone the freedom to write what they would not be comfortable saying otherwise.

For Fontaine, this appears to be a particularly serious concern. While his songs that he releases under his own name show a certain familiar persona that seems to be required for any rapper who needs to prove his manhood in a deeply competitive game as an mc, as a writer for others, Fontaine has proven himself to be a considerably more sensitive and thoughtful person than his own rap tracks would indicate. It would appear, at least for many rappers, that introspective and meditative writing in the contemporary rap game requires that someone do so under conditions of anonymity, so as not to blow one’s reputation as being a man’s man. This suggests there is something deeply unhealthy about the contemporary rap game if one cannot write thoughtful songs about relationships with women or with one’s children while retaining the credibility needed for success as a rapper, and that being known as a thoughtful co-writer of material for others could harm one’s own career on the mic because one is not viewed as being sufficiently masculine as a result of the honest portrayal of one’s feelings.

I remember feeling a sense of disconnect when I listened to a solo album recorded by Semisonic frontman and noted ghostwriter Dan Wilson that consisted of covers of songs that he had co-written for other people ranging from Taylor Swift to John Legend, among others. The songs that he was covering, although largely written by him, seemed strange to hear in their austere arrangements, considering that the singers who had originally sang these songs did so seeking to make deeply personal statements and it felt strange and unpleasant hearing the writer sing these songs as covers, even though they had been his own personal statements. The fact that the production of the covers was so inferior to the production of the originals only added to the feeling of unease. Without the sheen of familiar pop production and stripped of the personal artistic statements that the songs originally had, the songs appeared highly diminished in their covered form, almost like a bad karaoke night with someone who writes well but who cannot capture the feel, even of songs that he himself wrote for others, possibly out of his own experience or his own awareness of what the others wanted to say about themselves.

This is the case even though unlike Pardison Fontaine, Dan Wilson had no need to hide his own emotional depth as an artist in his chosen genre. Unlike the contemporary rap game, Dan Wilson came of age as a quirky alternative performer in Trip Shakespeare, Semisonic, as well as a solo artist and songwriter. He unabashedly wore his heart on his sleeve, and though this did not always work in his favor when it came to how he came across as an artist, he did not face a great deal of negativity as a result of expressing his love for his wife or his child in such songs as “Made To Last,” “Closing Time,” and “Act Naturally.” Indeed, it would appear that his success as an artist and the emotional vulnerability he showed while achieving some popular and critical success only served to advertise his songwriting abilities in assisting artists who wanted to show themselves as complex emotional figures but who did not have the pen game to do so themselves. Sometimes people are the most free to write when they have the least desire or expectation for fame or celebrity status. It is easier to be oneself and express one’s own deepest emotions in a cave than under the harsh glow of flash cameras as a superstar, it would seem.