The Beef of Our Generation: Meek Mill and Drake 

            It seems like a millennium ago… rolling through my neighborhood on a beautiful July morning bumping Dreams Worth More Than Money in my parent‰’s mini van. Singing along to “R.I.C.O‰Û, trading off Meek and Drake‰’s verses with my homies and doing that little shoulder shimmy that you do when the song is too lit, but you gotta keep both hands on the wheel and eyes on the road. I was never a big Meek Mill fan, but that album was banging. That particular song was my favorite, but I gotta take the time to acknowledge “Jump Out the Face‰” and “Classic.” The timing of the album was perfect, it was the best thing to listen to while messing around and being bored with your friends in the pretty normal city of Springfield, Virginia. These were the better times in life.

One innocent night around 1:30 am during that same month, I refreshed Twitter and hell froze over. A weird tweet about how Drake doesn‰’t write his own music was on my timeline, from Meek himself. Confusion spread and group chats were blowing up. But, I really didn‰’t think anything would amount from it. I figured Meek would use the classic “my account got hacked‰” cover up story. Once Meek tweeted the name of Drake‰’s alleged ghostwriter, it was a done deal, the BEEF HAD BEGUN. What is happening? Is the sky falling? Oh no, I thought to myself, is Drake really not writing his raps? Who is Quentin Miller? Families were divided, relationships were torn apart. ARE YOU TEAM DRAKE OR TEAM MEEK? I didn‰’t know what to say, so I just stared at my ceiling. I kept refreshing Drake‰’s Twitter to see if he said anything… but all I metaphorically heard were crickets.

After earsplitting silence from The Boy, he dropped a couple of tracks at once, including my personal favorite, “Right Hand‰Û. But he also sneaked in Charged Up, his first diss track. I was impressed but not shook. I thought the end of this was near, but man, was I wrong.

A few days passed and I opened Twitter to see a new diss track on my TL. WOW. The cover art was witty, it was a picture of TORONTO Blue Jay Joe Carter after he hit the World Series home run against the PHILADELPHIA Phillies. That itself is one of the biggest trolls of the year. “BACK TO BACK‰” WAS THAT GOOD GOOD. The 6 God wouldn‰’t let Meek breathe, “Is that a world tour or your girl‰’s tour?‰” was the shot heard around the world. That line was essentially the walls of Meek‰’s castle crumbling down. Drake even said he would buy bottles for my favorite radio personality and pretty open Drake critic, Charlemagne tha God. THEN THIS MAN DID JUST THAT. “Back to Back‰” was literally an arsenal of disses that ate at the soul. No one thought Drake would bring that fire, but my god he brought it.

Meek eventually came around with “Wanna Know‰Û, but it was too late. The deed was already done. I thought it was funny how Meek put Quentin Miller‰’s rendition of “Know Yourself‰Û, but the internet will never let Meek get a W. Especially with the illegal sample of the Undertaker‰’s theme song, and the whole cease and desist thing with the WWE that came with it. It really wasn‰’t as horrible as many put it, but hey, the internet loves Drake through thick and thin. And to make the situation even worse, Drake posted a picture of himself laughing on Instagram, with no caption. Because a picture is worth a thousand words.

I figured at this point things would blow over, but the fateful 3^rd day of Drake‰’s OVO Fest came around. Drake managed to be one of most disrespectful dudes of all time by performing “Back to Back‰” with a gigantic screen of memes making fun of Meek behind him. Then he got Kanye West AND Will Smith (a fellow City of Brotherly Love aficionado), to laugh at Meek. My lord. Twitter was having a field day, and I was joined in on the fun. He did this all in his hometown, a place where pride for The Boy runs deep. Solidarity in the 6!

I was lucky enough to see Drake perform at the Landmark Music Festival in DC, and of course he played “Back to Back‰” in a very extravagant manner. At the end, the crowd chanted “F*CK MEEK MILL‰” and oh so eloquently, Drizzy responded with “Don‰’t worry, he‰’s dead already!‰” Wowweeeeeeee.

Who manages to get a diss track nominated for Grammy? Aubrey Drake Graham does. “Back To Back‰” getting nominated is just another example of how this dude is on top of the rap game. Will this madness ever end? Probably not, since social media will never let anything die down. At this point even my Philly friends can‰’t put together a good enough sentence to defend Meek. They just dart their eyes and say “You know what? Meek is an overall better rapper though; he just took this L…‰” Drake showed the world how to beef in the current age.

I realized America didn‰’t really care if Drake wrote his raps or not. That‰’s the effect he has, The 6 God is so charismatic that people couldn‰’t care less if “Energy‰” isn‰’t all his own words. The whole “ghostwriter‰” part of the beef got outshined by Drake‰’s response, so the world will probably never get a solid response to the comments that started this whole mess.

I wish Meek Mill had given us more to work with, all he gave us were a bunch of cryptic social media posts and one average diss track. Meek was fighting an uphill battle on this one. If Drake and Meek‰’s feud isn‰’t the best beef of the year, I don‰’t know what to tell you. It‰’s the modern day Tupac-Biggie beef, minus the violence and death threats. Sure, “Back to Back‰” isn‰’t a “Hit ‰Em Up‰Û, but it‰’s a much safer alternative… trigger fingers did in fact turn to twitter fingers.

-Calkie Fisseha