Meek Mill & The Age of Decaffinated Diss Tracks - Chris "Preach" Smith

Photo Credit: Takemybackpack.com

Somewhere, Kool Moe Dee is shaking his head and
sounding like Danny Glover in “Lethal Weapon”.

In the past few days, rap fans and a good part of the 
general public have kept their eyes glued to computer
and smartphone screens to see the latest instance in
the ongoing feud between Drake and Meek Mill. Although
“feud” would suggest that this is something fierce in
the making. This squabble between Drake and Meek?
Nothing of the sort. To give you a recap of events, we
have to go back to the origin point. Meek Mill was apparently
upset that Drake didn’t support his new album release
via social media by posting the link to it on iTunes. So
Meek decided to vent and roast Drake online by claiming
Drake doesn’t write his own rhymes, even naming an
Atlanta-based MC by the name of Quentin Miller as his
ghostwriter. The Twitter rant went on in the wee hours,
even getting Rick Ross involved(although his tweet in
support of Meek was deleted soon after he posted it.)
Drake kept quiet, only issuing one vague comment to a
supporter on Instagram. Then he released three new songs,
one of them being “Charged Up.” “Charged Up” threw
shots at Meek without mentioning him. And then…then
things got downright weird. In just the past 48 hours,
we saw Funkmaster Flex of HOT97 promise to drop a
response by Meek on his Monday night radio show. Many
(not including me)listened to the entire show only to be
disappointed and outraged that there was NO record to
be played. The outrage has now boiled over into an online
petition to get Flex off the airwaves. Meek Mill only offered
up a joke or two online after that incident. And then last
night, Meek was late to a concert appearance in Drake’s
hometown of Toronto, Canada - only to get onstage with the
large screen saying “F**K YOU”. Drake’s response? ANOTHER
diss track entitled “Back to Back”.

Listen. This whole situation is really just prolonged comedy.
I mean, you even have Norm Kelly, a Toronto politican, 
throwing shots at Meek saying he wasn’t welcome in the 
city. A politician. If that’s not something that doesn’t make
you long for the days of L.L. Cool J against Canibus, I don’t
know what else really will. Make no mistake though: this isn’t
a battle. Can you really call it a battle? Can you really call it a battle
when one rapper calls out another almost a week ago and
STILL hasn’t issued one coherent response to the attacks?
I’ve listened to “Charged Up.” It’s not an overwhelming
track. Drake sounded like he was just sliding out of the booth
at a Jack Astor’s and signing the check while laying out those
bars. It speaks more to what he thinks of Meek’s lyrical skills
than anything else. “Back to Back”, just released, to me is
better in terms of energy and bars. It’s not on the level of “Ether”
by Nas in his torrid battle against Jay-Z. Even if current media
outlets want to make it so. Hey, I’m laughing along at this situation
as much as the next person. But I don’t see this as “beef.” Even the 
diss tracks seem a tad decaffinated to me. And that speaks
more to the current climate in contemporary rap music than
anything else. I mean, Nicki Minaj is in the midst of this, being
in a relationship with Meek Mill and a labelmate to Drake and
frequent collaborator. It seems more like a soap opera that
could be on Oxygen than a real situation. In the past couple of
days I’ve spoken with folks who have raised the question of
whether or not this is staged, like I have. While it doesn’t seem
likely that it is, the fact that we’ve gotten to a point where we
even have to raise that question is a bit sad.

If you love hip-hop culture and rap music, this situation does
make you have to shake your head. Conflict between MC’s back
in the day were commonplace. Hell, there was once a time where
you got noticed as a rapper by cutting a “response” track to a
famous song on the airwaves. Roxanne Shante and The Real
Roxanne and UTFO. Boogie Down Productions and MC Shan.
Kool Moe Dee and L.L. Cool J. The Wu-Tang Clan and Biggie.
I understand that this is a different time and things are dealt
with in a different way but as a matter of pride, the entire 
situation of calling someone out then not even responding
flies in the face of what rap music IS. It’s about bravado. It’s
about verbal combat. It’s about the challenge and meeting it.
Drake, to his credit, is handling it as you should - someone
comes at you, you come back at them with BARS. Listen, I 
howled at that one line: 

Yeah trigger fingers turn to Twitter fingers
you gettin’ bodied by a singin’ n***a

The biggest problem here is Meek Mill. First of all, if this is to
promote your new album - which I haven’t seen ANY heavy
promotion - you failed miserably. Staying silent with no track
after you promised one to Flex and didn’t deliver, but you had
time to clown on Twitter? You’re being the embodiment of a 
cat-in-the-hat ass rapper. Even your girlfriend’s former boyfriend
is throwing shots at you? There’s even a crowdfunding campaign
for you to record a response track. If there’s no response by
Meek real soon, he’s set to make his mark in rap history by
basically being rap’s Mitch “Blood” Green by taking a repetitive
beating verbally. But make no mistake, this isn’t rap beef. It’s
more like if you went to Crown Fried Chicken instead of Popeye’s.
Let the laughs continue.