I have the faint sense that the Drake / Meek Mill ‘beef’ is a pre-planned public relations stunt. Meek is dating Nikki Minaj a long time collaborator of Drake (via Young Money / Cash Money). Both rappers have gained massive media attention and tons of new social media followers. But I don’t know, it’s possible it started as a funny joke and then turned into a fight. It’s also possible that this is a real scrap.
Given that the daily beef updates are worldwide news (CNN, New York Times, and dozens of ‘serious’ news outlets grabbed the story and have been breathlessly posting gossip and re-posting tweets). It is worth checking out some of the themes that make this scrap significant.
- Everyone sort of expected Meek Mill to do better against Drake. It’s no secret that Drake is respected among hip hop folks, but seen as a johnny-come-lately former actor who sings his hooks. He is a pop rapper, with the sales numbers and teenage fans to prove it. This isn’t to take anything away from Drake, because in that formula has been a world dominating path to rap success. In some ways beating Meek has been vital for his image. His previous meme struggles had been the unerring connections of his rap career with his acting career. Witness the Degrassi memes which swim around online Drake discussions.
2. The key argument which seems to have ‘won’ Drake the battle against Meek Mill was just sexism. Witness the lines from “Back to back:”
Is that a world tour or your girl’s tour?/ I know that you gotta be a thug for her/ This ain’t what she meant when she told you to open up more/ Yeah, trigger fingers turn to twitter fingers/ Yeah, you gettin’ bodied by a singin’ nigga/ I’m not the type of nigga that’ll type to niggas/ And shout-out to all my boss bitches wifin’ niggas/ Make sure you hit him with the prenup
via Drake – Back to Back Lyrics | Genius.
Cheap sexism — the idea that opening up for Nikki Minaj’s Pink print tour is too feminine to be legit for a real tough guy rapper. Add in the suggestion in “Charged up” that Drake had sex (or never could) with Nikki Minaj and you’ve got perhaps the most over-used trope in rap.
I also think it is a clear insult to Nikki Minaj who is a phenomenal rapper and a stunning internet strategist. That her success is an insult to Meek is also sexist. The result was some ugly photo shop work to create images like this:
To mark the bodies as distinctly female and male with roles associated. It is gender policing to suggest that any violation of these roles is unmanly or unfeminine.
3. For some pitiful corporate social media coordinators, this beef has been an opportunity to interject their product. Crappy corporate fast food chains have posted snarky jokes about beef and attempted to connect their brand to something current and edgy. It seems trite to me, but the re-posts by passionate fans suggest that this branding strategy of riding the coattails has some significance.
I would call it trolling. Corporations mock either Drake (usually Meek Mill) in a semi-related tweet hoping that fans will respond. But that isn’t that far away from the origins of this beef — Meek attacking a target that seemed vulnerable at the time.
Much of the enthusiasm for the beef might come from the comeuppance of traditionalist rap sources (MMG, tough-guy rappers, Funk Master Flex (who has failed to emerge with much promoted Meek Mill responses) in favor of the new power in hip hop (pop media, savvy social media stars and mockery memes). In some ways the internet makes this an accessible fight — one that encourages a certain amount of piling on.
Life of refinement 