I was conversing with a New Orleans native who informed me that New Orleans natives Jay Electronica and Frank Ocean both work as prolific ghost writers in the business and avoid releasing solo tracks. They'll each write about five songs per album and they're usually not released. Jay Electronica released Only Built For Cuban Linx... in 2001 and Obsessed in 2003. Both albums were critically acclaimed but neither charted highly. Frank Ocean's debut album, Channel Orange, was released in 2012 to widespread acclaim from music critics. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart. Ghost writing is when another person writes lyrics for a song that you sing or play instruments in. Some popular ghostwriters include Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson, and Prince. McCartney wrote several of John Lennon's songs before Lennon died. Jackson wrote many of the songs on his first four albums, including all the songs written by Jackson alone. Prince wrote most of the songs on his first three albums. People can say what they want about Jay Z, but he does have a team of writers that help him create songs. And yes, they're paid well too. One blog claimed that Jay Z made $750,000 for two hours of work by one of his writers. That's a lot of money!