When Ashlee Simpson broke into a jig on SNL last fall after her pre-recorded vocals sang the wrong song, her bizarro dance moves were really the night's only surprise (aside from maybe that ingenious acid reflux excuse). After all, the use of backing tracks is pretty much an unspoken rule in pop music.

Hip-hop, however, has its own dirty little lip-synching equivalent -- ghost writing -- and most MCs will boast about every money-making scheme they come up with, except writing rhymes for other rappers.

Nevertheless, the topic has been firing up message boards and blogs since The MindSet Army -- a group centred around the ironically (and sometimes amusingly) offensive hip-hop blog byroncrawford.com -- alleged Kanye West's "Jesus Walks" was ghost written by Indianapolis MC Rhymefest (who, it must be noted, does have a co-writing credit).

To put Crawford's tone into perspective, his Ashlee-related post was subheaded "I hadn't laughed this hard since Reagan died." But dude's got a particular hate-on for 2004's most lauded rapper and launched a (futile) online petition to have some of West's 10 Grammy nominations revoked.

Addressed to the Recording Academy, it reads "Two categories in which he was nominated were Song of the Year and Best Rap Song for 'Jesus Walks,' a song he bought ... and re-recorded. While it is true that Rhymefest was given a songwriting credit and nominated for two awards along with West, we do not feel that it is appropriate for the Recording Academy to reward this kind of behavior, especially in light of statements he has made with regard to his capabilities as an artist."

Despite their best efforts, Crawford and company had only wrangled up 377 signatories at press time (compare this to the over 240,000 who signed the "Stop Ashlee Simpson" petition at the same site) but they likely never expected to prevent Kanye's coronation.

Their motives seem to further spur the backlash over West's arrogance (which, while true, is amusing given his boastful benefactor calls himself J-Hova). MindSet member Chiseven says on his My Stunted Growth blog, "For him to pay people for rhymes/concepts/etc. is no big deal, but for him to act like he is the next G.O.A.T. of the rap game (which he does regularly) is inexcusable."

Or, as Crawford sums up more succinctly: "Kanye = Douche."

Fair enough, the guy has been acting like a bit of a dick -- including whining about losing an American Music Award to Gretchen Wilson -- but since that doesn't impugn the album itself, they're hoping to tar West with the ghost-writer-user tag.

All that is clear is that Rhymefest (who also ghost wrote for Ol' Dirty Bastard) was the song's instigator. During a recent interview with all
hiphop.com, Rhymefest says, after pussyfooting around the question, "All right, I'll be specific. I helped him with the chorus -- we collaborated on the chorus, and we collaborated on the first verse and I brought the sample to him." But since Rhymefest was credited (and paid), there's no way to confirm exactly who did what.

Now, ghost writing has been around since practically day one. Grandmaster Caz claims the Sugar Hill Gang used his lyrics on "Rapper's Delight (without paying him though, so technically that's biting), Big Daddy Kane wrote Biz Markie's best cuts and Run-DMC helped the Beasties rock their rhymes right on time.

The D.O.C., a briefly popular Texan who wrecked his vocal chords in a car crash, penned lyrics for Dr. Dre and others at Ruthless and Death Row. In fact, the good doctor's 2001 comeback track, "Still D.R.E.," came courtesy of Jigga, a prolific ghost writer who has said "I get paid a lot of money to not tell you who I write for." Jadakiss, however, has admitted to writing "It's All About the Benjamins" for Puffy, who later bragged "Don't worry if I write rhymes, I write cheques," on his hit "Bad Boy for Life."

Virginia rapper Skillz has actually built a real career off his ghost writing -- he describes his plentiful peer group as a "secret society" -- after winning attention for his legendary Rawkus 12-inch "Ghost Writer" which, to his many clients' relief, scratched or bleeped out their names (though he has occasionally let loose in concert).

If so many rappers -- famous and not so much -- have either bought or sold rhymes, why does it still carry such a stigma? After all, people groan when pop tarts try to write their own lyrics and country music is practically built on anonymous songwriters along Music Row.

Back in the pre-rock era, nobody expected Frank Sinatra to write his own words -- what was important was that his inimitable style made the lyrics his own. But after The Beatles and Bob Dylan, simply singing wasn't considered artistic enough and while this back-and-forth debate continues in the rockist vs. popist circles, hip-hop has its own take on the conundrum.

The genre is predicated on two things above all else: skills and authenticity. To spit someone else's rhymes, therefore, shows a disturbing dearth in both categories, especially considering hip-hop's supposedly autobiographical nature.

Crunk aside, words matter more in hip-hop than in pop or rock, where a singer can reasonably win props for a vocal interpretation of someone else's lyrics. But an MC's talent is defined by their rhymes even more than their flow, which is why all this ghost writing is done behind closed doors, even if the rappers in question put their own indelible stamp on the material.

For the listener, it doesn't matter who wrote the words for "D.R.E." or "Vapors" any more than it does for "Toxic"; the artist may lose respect points but not the song itself (besides, Dre and Biz never claimed to be great MCs anyway). But Kanye West has, which is why the mud may yet stick.

So as West preps to storm the Grammy stage next week, the real winner of this controversy is Rhymefest. He's parlayed his "Jesus Walks" work into a good deal of media attention, possible Grammy awards, a six-album deal with J Records and some payback beats from West.

The duo is even tackling the controversy head-on by penning verses for each other on a new Rhymefest track called "I Ain't Write This." So, at the very least, West's sense of humour has seemingly survived the attacks.