Things get lit when you talk about someone’s woman. And that’s what happened the day before Independence Day when Joe Budden spoke on Meek Mill’s PDA towards Nicki Minaj at the BET awards. For all those that are better than Hip Hop drama, here’s what set off the Twitter spat: “Part of my problem with that is Meek’s music is too hard. Meek’s music is too hard for me to look at him with this fucking sappy fuck-shit. Be the hardcore guy that I’m sure she was attracted to at some point. It’s nasty. I hate everything about it.”
A deluge of Tweets followed as the two sparred on both who would out-rap the other and why you shouldn’t hop in another man’s business over the object of his affections.
Now we all know Budden can hold his own in a battle, but can Meek’s aggressive style really give Joe problems in an on-wax showdown? It might. And even if it doesn’t, Hip Hop really needs these two to let off some steam and release that via SoundCloud links into the wild. Hip Hop, for all of its greatness this year, lacks a true tit-for-tat so why not these two and why not now? Here, we give you five reasons why Hip Hop needs a Meek Mill and Joe Budden back and forth.
“Control” Didn’t Result In Increased Competition
As much as we all loved that “Control” verse from King Kendrick, it didn’t actually result in any kind of increased competition amongst emcees. In fact, after the initial hurried attempts at putting out a quality response, things pretty much petered off. There were a few factors at the helm of that decline in interest. One was that most top-notch emcees simply didn’t participate. Neither Big Sean nor Jay Electronica released follow-ups, and the closest anyone came to really challenging Lamar was hardly noticeable. But, as we all know, these kinds of airing outs are the crucible in which Hip Hop was formed, and that fire needs to be fed once in a while. That is especially true if it’s fed by two emcees of the caliber of Joe and Meek. Of course, we don’t want anything to happen off MP3, but a good old-fashioned showdown would be amazing for Hip Hop right now.
Joe Budden’s Confrontational Bars Are Some Of His Best
Joe Budden can rap his ass off. We all know that he can, and he’s at his most focused when battling. When he’s not battling his focus tends to be on his emotional life, which can easily drift from stunningly raw commentary on what it means to be a man to driven, black-as-night depictions of tiny interrelationship details. Both of those subjects, while compelling, just don’t bring out the Joe that can bend words into whatever form he wishes. Plus he needs this, too. Without a skirmish every now and then, Joe seems to get bored. This would provide just the right amount of fire he needs to get himself going in the booth.
Meek Mill Gets To Prove Himself Against A Worthy Opponent
Contrary to most people’s assumptions, Meek is a really good emcee. His wordplay is clever, raw, and impactful and his cadence is straight up one of the most aggressive in the game. He’s yet to prove himself against a worthy opponent, though. And these two are tailor-made for each other. Joe’s facility with words would knock right up against Meek’s brick-wall style, and Budden’s penchant for punch lines would slam directly into Mill’s straightforward rhymes. Meek is also clever, though, as he showed on his new album Dreams Worth More Than Money. He took his time crafting those deeply emotional bars and it seemed to have rubbed off on Meek’s entire style. Did anyone peep that Five Fingers Of Death freestyle? Meek is no slouch, and here’s his opportunity to prove he can hang with the lyrical big boys.
Getting Back To Hip Hop’s Roots
Hip Hop today has gotten really soft. R&B artists are beefing, and most major issues between rappers are over social media. Thus, most real problems between rappers are solved in the weirdest ways. Some could say that’s the effects of a post-Tupac vs. Biggie Hip Hop. Add sliding music sales into the mix and everyone wants to get along for the sake of survival despite their differences. If Meek and Joe Budden can keep things on wax, this could get very interesting, as both are lyrical beasts. Then again, that depends on if Nicki stays out of this. And, no, it’s not about letting two men handle it. It’s just that Minaj has destroyed two careers already. Don’t believe me? Ask Lil Kim and her ex Safaree. It’d be unfortunate to potentially have Budden become a casualty.
Nicki Minaj Is Worth Rapping For
Well, believe it or not, Nicki Minaj may as well be the greatest female emcee in terms of millennials. There aren’t men, including Meek himself, that have even come close to selling the number of singles and albums. That doesn’t even count that cheaply made (but tasty in that hood way) Moscato or decent smelling perfume that sells by the hundreds of thousands. If Meek Mill wants to love up on all that, so fucking be it. What he has is a good woman who so happens to be one of the best emcees in the game. Anyone who’s watched enough Love & Hip Hop knows how much of an asshole Joe Budden was to his ex-girl Tahiry on live television. By the time Budden got it right and proposed, he got rejected in front of millions. Ms. Onika is worth treating right on sight.
Andre Grant is an NYC native turned L.A. transplant that has contributed to a few different properties on the web and is now the Features Editor for HipHopDX. He’s also trying to live it to the limit and love it a lot. Follow him on Twitter @drejones.
Ural Garrett is a Los Angeles-based journalist and HipHopDX’s Senior Features Writer. When not covering music, video games, films and the community at large, he’s in the kitchen baking like Anita. Follow him on Twitter @Uralg.
This is dumb. Hiphopdx is getting lamer between post like this and the horrible album reviews. Hip hop don’t need this fake ass beef shit. This ain’t the 90’s and early 2000’s niggas will really get killed over shit. Budden is a fucking lame and Meeks crew would do physical harm to this lame if they caught him. Burden isn’t a street dude and there’s some people you just can’t have a rap beef with cause things are gonna get taken passed just going back and forth. Budden been in the game forever ain’t still ain’t shit. Just known for the girls that end up clowning on him and then moving on to bigger artists.
Street shit? Not the 90’s, early 2000’s? GTFOH!!! If niggas can’t do their job and go bar for bar proving who is the better lyricist/MC then what the fuck is the point of it all. A niggas personality or “another” niggas depiction of what “real niggas” do and dont do doesn’t depict whether or not their “street dudes” cause that argument is fuckin lame, because like you said “this isn’t the 90’s”. Nowadays, a nigga wit skinny jeans and high top fade who into Anime could blow a niggas head clear the fuck off for questioning his attire. Don’t be ignorant. Budden aside, meek is from Philly, but never undermine where another nigga is from and whom they may roll with off camera. Both are great artists in their own right but Budden is arguably hands down a better lyricist/MC than Meek… truth be told. So for another nigga or his people wanting to do harm to another nigga for being out-rapped bar for bar is some corny shit and niggas are more in their feelings than Budden. Understandable enough, Meek has more to lose than Budden, even the bitch he stole. I’m a fan of rap so don’t take this as a slight but rather insight.
he sold more records than meek ever will, i think he got a gold album, meek dont even got a gold single does he?
Aside from many people’s personal dislike for Joe Budden…. Son is NICE with the bars. In my opinion, he’s arguably the best lyricist in hip hop and has been for over a decade. With that said… NOBODY wants problems with Joe on wax. Especially Meek who is an average lyricist at BEST, in my opinion. I would suggest people continue clowning Joe for his fashion choices and his simping…. But when it comes to them bars?? Just leave his ass alone cause he’ll make most look very silly out here.
You hit nail right on the head as they say, my Tri-State area friend
Dx just proved to me how fucking stupid they are when it comes to hiphop. Enough said
Joey will murda Meek point blank period. Bar for bar Joey will kill son just like Cassidy did. And please get off the Nicki Minaj bandwagon. Bcuz bar for bar she can’t fuck with Rah Digga, Jean Grae, and 3D Natee’. Yea it’ll be nice to hear Joey shut another rapper mouth up but it’s best to let this die out. Next thing you know it’ll be NJ vs PA thing. One
You can’t name off female emcees who are better than Nicki, without mentioning Rhapsody bro! Sorry I had to because the whole universe is sleepin on her lol
Worst article ever! Mainstream artists need to fuck off and find another way to exploit money from some other fad. This is only for the brain dead morons that think lil Wayne is the best rapper alive :p
meek got chewed up by a washed up cassidy. he got no chance going against joey. he gonna have to get nicki, mmg and all his industry friends on his side.
THAT WON’T EVEN WORK LOOK WHO JOE GOT IN HIS CORNER
You right about everything you said except cassidy being washed up. Cassidy never loss a battle, Meek gets a L every time he raps
DX writes some dumb articles but this bullshit here may take the prize.
I don’t agree with the other commentators here. I agree with the editorial. Hip hop badly needs some competition. I don’t see how it WOULDN”T be good for hip hop if these two went for each other in the booth. Hip hop beefs have resulted in many classic songs, and often bring the best out of the emcees. I remember just five years ago there were like four beefs going on at the same time. It kind of makes things exciting.
Of course Joe would straight murder Meek Mill. But if Meek can even hold his own up, it will make for great diss tracks. I remember how Joe went after Prodigy. Almost destroyed the guy lyrically. Joe doesn’t get the respect he deserves. People hatiing on him should check out his discography.
But then this social media has hit hip hop beefs hard. Stupid and pointless back and forth on twitter ends with both parties compromising.
Great point! “Ether” and “Hit Em Up” are good examples of rap beefs catalyzing dope tracks. Maybe DX should have used that as a reason….just sayin
Joey ain’t worried about blowing up .gtfo with that . Foreal tho joe would murder weak mills . Idgaf how much he screams . He ain’t got no damn bars. He’s fucking immature and half witted. It’s sad non talent fucks like him get all this recognition . Joey left Def Jam bc he didnt like the industry . Joey has a solid fan base and is good regardless.I aint no joey Stan I just recognize real talent I could blaze joey and always expect dope bars . Real storys about shit that matters. Not some fool who can’t stop talking about shit he never did . Yea he probably did some dirt but he ain’t in depth. Foreal tho I’m waiting on joey kendrick and Cole to jump on a track that would be dope.
How much are you paid to suck Nickis dick?
Budden told Meek he wasn’t a good rapper and Meek responded by calling him a noodle.
I agree. That type of competition would actually make meek and Joey bigger, especially meek. And nicki could probably snap harder than either of em
it’s never gonna generate from here though. Their Conflict is going to remind on social media.
Joey would win. Dude’s one of the best rappers and especially writers ever!!!
Nah they both wack asf
Yeah screech isn’t on his level
lol Meek will get murdered.
WHY isnt joe releasing albums? he is a good emcee and everyone keeps bringing up Pump it up. i agree with every word joe said BUT i think nicki is forcing meek on all the PDA,
Joe Budden has skillz but cant make albums and he is old and lame now and Meek Mill is just another crap mc. So we dont need a battle between 2 nobodies only beefing for publicity.
Nobody cares about that shit anymore. Social Media killed rap record battles. If you want to see two rappers argue with each other, you can just go on Youtube and see real battles anytime you want, there are like 10 new ones every week, from dudes who do that for a living and are better at it than either of these 2. Also, the rap fans of the modern age have the attention spans of Gold fish so nobody would care in a week anyway. Back in the day, we heard A diss record, then waited in anticipation for the reply. These days, one guy drops his record and a day later the other guy has his response out on Youtube and then they argue on twitter and ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz. That part of hip hop is dead. Deal with it however you can.
sad but true…smh
Hip Hop is dead ! Raps still alive though 🙂
I like joe to demolish meek
Why does Hip-Hop NEED these two to battle…especially over some bs? C’mon, it’s a waste of time. Stop instigating because it’s corny and unecessary. If they wanna do it, let them decide as two men. End of story.
Are we gonna just ignore them saying Nicki killed lil kims career???????????????? They proved they’re dick riders and have no clue fam
But…… she did if we are talking sales or global impact, marketing, branding, intellect, and lyricism. Kim does (did have?) longevity but she is far from the best or the most influential to do the female mc thing even before nic. When you add to that the fact that Kim probably didn’t write 80% of some of her most popular material it’s kinda like *meh*.
White people starting confusion amongst black people culture again. What kind of man wants to see two men argue over a beat ? Grow up and find something meaningful to write about.