Why The Game’s “Beef” With Meek Mills is Bad but Necessary for Hip Hop

Feature Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez / Lisa Lake, Getty Images

“Beef” in Hip Hop is like Snow in the North, You know it’s coming, it’s just a matter of when. Some of the most notable “beefs” or battles (which was the politically correct term back then) included Big Daddy Kane vs Rakim, Biggie vs Pac, LL Cool J vs Big L, Jay Z vs Nas, and the deeply personal beef between 50 Cent and Ja Rule among others.

Fast forward a decade or two later, the Hip Hop battle scene has lost its luster which is kind of reminiscent of the sport of boxing at the moment. Contrary to days past, there is more money to be made in music than ever before due to streaming services, endorsement deals, clothing pop up shops by some of your favorite artists( Drake, Future, and Ye anyone ?), reality TV, and world wide concert tours. Hip Hop is now considered mainstream Pop culture and today’s MCs are not going to put their brand at risk unless they’re guaranteed a W from all the “social media heads” which is reminiscent of the attitude of today’s boxers afraid to lose their “0” to a worthy challenger.

This brings us to the latest “beef” that’s garnering attention on the urban news waves and that’s the beef between The Game and Meek Mill which coincidentally coincides with the release of The Game’s upcoming studio album 1992.

The reasons behind why the two have issues are already out there so i’m not going to bore you with the details but the gist of it has to do with Sean Kingston whom had hit records such as Beautiful Girls and Beat It featuring Chris Brown. Rumor has it that Kingston’s chain was snatched earlier this summer and Meek Mill served as an informant sort of speak for leaking out The Game’s name as being a suspect in the scenario.

Now, before I get into why this bad for Hip Hop, let’s keep it positive and focus on why it is necessary for the culture. Technology has made it so that rappers no longer have to get in a booth and “spit a hot 16” coming at his or her adversary. Thanks to social media avenues such as FaceBook,  Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat, today’s MCs can type in 160 characters or go on a rant in a minute and 30 seconds about his or her problem with whomever. The new wave as made popular by the likes of Drake and Kanye West is to throw subliminal jabs on stage about such and such. It’s like damn ! what happened to the spirit of competition ? Worst part about it is fans of artist such as Drake, Kanye, Kid Cudi, Wale, Lil Yachty, and numerous others eat it up when their favorite artist throw shots at others within the industry. Hip Hop is full of more Twitter fingers then actual MCs now a days. Even one of my personal favorite MCs, 50 Cent has resorted to the tactic of Memes and Instagram videos to throw shots as appose to “coming at heads” like he did in diss tracks such as Piggy Bank and the underrated Officer Ricky. Although I question the motive behind Game’s diss track towards Meek, I can at least appreciate the fact that after writing an Instagram essay slandering Meek’s character, he took the time to offer up a follow up in the form of his latest single 92 Bars.

Check it out Below: WARNING! Use of profanity and sexual undertones

As of Sunday August 18th, Meek Mill has followed up with his own diss track getting back at The Game titled OOOUUU

Check it Out Below: WARNING! Use of profanity and sexual undertones

A nice competitive battle is what Hip Hop needs right now. Sure we had it sort of speak with Meek vs Drake but the circumstances were petty and Drake is bigger than Hip Hop right now so there’s no way Meek was going to come away a winner going up against the “6 God” and the same goes for Joe Budden who tried his hand as well in slaying the dragon known as Drake. Game and Meek Mill are in my opinion on a much leveled playing field in which personal bias will not interfere with lyrical ability and punch lines as both artist are still in the
Hip Hop box” while artists such as Drake and Kanye West transcends above and beyond the Hip Hop genre.

Now, onto why this is bad for Hip Hop. Could this all be one big publicity stunt for Game to garner more interest in his album and generate more sales ? The man is soon about to embark on a media frenzy tour to promote his album and also this topic of his beef with Meek which came way out of left field like a big league home run. Afterall Drake’s been patching things up with artist such as Eminem. 50 Cent has made up with fellow NYC rivals Camron and Fat Joe. Granted people change as they get older but controversy creates cash and both of these guys are sure to be “laughing straight to the bank with this” after this is all over. It’s like Swizz Beatz says “who’s real, who’s not ?”