The story goes that Diddy had so much money lying around his crib that he didn’t know what to do with all those Benjamins. So, he tossed the money in T-Pain’s direction and said, “Take that, take that.”
“Puffy, whatchu giving me all this money for?,” queried a wide-eyed T-Pain. Diddy paused for a second, removed a gold-crested toothpick from his mouth and replied, “That’s for letting me use Auto-Tune on one of my joints. You invented that bad boy, right?”

Yeah, Diddy paid T-Pain royalties for using Auto-Tune. “Diddy actually gave me royalties on this album just for using Auto-Tune,” bragged Mr. Pain in a recent MTV interview. “He signed the contract and everything. If I can do that with Diddy, somebody else better be signing something.”

Well, in the spirit of paying people for trends they didn’t invent, let’s take a look at some hip-hop artists who deserve to get paid for being innovative. Here’s a rundown of the 5 most innovative hip-hop artists of all time and their respective inventions.
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Jay-Z - “Go Hard (Brooklyn)” (Featuring Santogold)
This ain’t hip-hop, this is black hoodie rap. I gather that “Go Hard” is off the Soundtrack to that crappy-looking Notorious film. It samples Santogold’s “Shove It.”

[Huge props to Legend for sending it over]

We all knew that Biggie Smalls wrote most of Lil Kim’s rhymes. What we didn’t know was that he also recorded references tracks to guide Kim through her rhyme sequence and structure. Or that said tracks have been crawling the interwebs for a hot minute. Luckily, our friends at Buhbomp have unearthed some of the reference tracks Biggie cut for Kim way way back in the day, when some of you were still in underoos. One of the cuts (below) finds Biggie spitting Lil Kim’s “Queen Bitch” joint in its entirety. Reference track or not, it still feels weird just hearing B.I.G. say rhymes like, “Got buffoons eating my pussy while I watch cartoons” and “I’m rich, I’ma stay that bitch.”

Biggie - “Queen Bitch” (Reference Track)

Biggie - “Player’s Anthem” (Reference Track)

[Props: Buhbomp]

Common - “Gladiator”
When Common and Pharrell closed out their Houston show with “Gladiator,” the building exploded. I’ve been waiting for the studio version since then and I have to say it was worth the wait. Common’s Universal Mind Control arrives on December 9th.

Bonus Cut:
Common - “Punch Drunk Love” (Feat. Kanye West)

[Thanks, Legend]

Joe Budden Featuring The Game - “The Future”
“The Future” has disappointment written all over it. Both rappers phoned in their verses and it came 2 years too late. But you know you still want to hear, so knock yourself out.

Ludacris - “MVP” (Produced by DJ Premier)
What I really like about this collaboration is that Luda doesn’t adjust his flow tremendously to suit the track. It’s the other way around — Premier tailor-made this beat for Luda’s unique flow. Sure he’s rhyming a tad bit slower than usual but it’s comes off as natural. “MVP” is easily the best song on Theater of the Mind (11/24). As for his claim of being “the first southern rapper on a Premier beat,” hey Chris, you ever heard of a dude named Devin?

• Ludacris - “Call Up the Homies” (Feat. The Game)
• Ludacris - “I Do It for Hip-Hop” (Feat. Jay-Z and Nas)

Here’s a sneak peak of Joe Budden’s collaboaration with Game, “The Future.” Never mind that Joey already had a track called “The Future” from Mood Muzik 2.

On a side note, check out this interesting Joe Budden interview with Ballerstatus.

Ludacris - “I Do It for Hip” (Featuring Jay-Z & Nas)

I do it for The Rap Up. Peep The Return of Ludacris video below.
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