From Action Bronson To Meek Mill: When Hip Hop Evokes Its “Rules” Everyone Loses

There’s a segment of the Hip Hop community that will always badger you about the rules. Hip Hop is one of the few genres faced with this, and not just because Hip Hop is a culture or lifestyle. It’s because Hip Hop, to some, is a way of being; a way of breathing. It’s also a game, a kind of competition, so rules grew out of the dirt to form some sort of barrier to entry. You can do this thing but not that thing. There are invisible lines everywhere. Even more so if you fall outside of what’s normal in Hip Hop — traditionally a very narrow band of characteristics — and are a white emcee or a woman or, even more taboo, fall on the LGBT spectrum.

Some perspectives, traditionally, have been seen as carrying more authenticity than others, and while those ideas had their upending at the hands of a guy called Kanye West, they still exist on the periphery of the genre as those that uphold a more classic view of the culture enforce them whenever they see fit.

The first example we’ll present is Meek Mill seemingly calling the kettle black while calling out Drake on the charge of not “writing his own rhymes.” That kind of slander is real in Hip Hop, and Drake couldn’t wait. He had to respond. This from the guy who’s explicitly stated that if you “diss me you’ll never get a reply for it.” And a guy who’s been come for before. See Common and his cold war with Kendrick as brief examples. So he released two diss tracks. First, “Charged Up” and then “Back To Back.” He sent bottles to Chalamagne. He used those hilarious memes at OVO Fest. It was his Jay Z at Summer Jam moment. The charge was egregious enough to garner that kind of response, and although Meek Mill has now backed down (and rightfully so), the damage to Drake’s pristine reputation stands with Nicki Minaj’s nails lodged in it. Because, by engaging him in a traditional rap beef, he’s dragged the masculine out of Drake. “Shout out to all my boss bitches wifin’ niggas!” Was that a Drake line? “Was that a world tour or is that your girls tour?” What’s wrong with that tour being his girl’s tour? Was that from the same Drake that’s an ally of all women? The one whose considerable rise has been built — in part or in full — on the backs of championing women by pointing out the absurdity of traditionally selfish, entitled male rhetoric?

So calling out Drake has had unforeseen consequences. Not only might there be an asterisk next to his name forever in the minds of Hip Hop’s purists, but he might have tipped his hand to dabbling in a more masculine side of the Hip Hop stratosphere with only two bars. That shift has not gone unnoticed.

In much the same way, Action Bronson has found himself in a different Hip Hop world by having the legendary Ghostface Killah come for him in a way that can only be called 90s-future-now. How wild was it to see Killah lean forward at the waist, clap his hands and talk to a grown man like he was a child acting up on-line at McDonalds? On Youtube? Over a Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes song? What in the world? But seen through the lense of Hip Hop purity, the act was more than warranted. Action, of course, immediately apologized. But it wasn’t over. After Sean Price passed away on Saturday night, Action Bronson immediately offered his condolences. Now, Sean is a Hip Hop insider in a way other emcees can only imagine. Hip Hop truly, indubitably, saved his life. He’s apart of two of the most thorough Hip Hop groups of all time (Heltah Skeltah and Boot Camp Clik), and a member of arguably the most prestigious and well-known underground Hip Hop label of all time (Duck Down Music). Being at that wake must have been akin to showing up to your friend’s evangelist Christian funeral with an “I’m an atheist” t-shirt on. He was confronted by Papa Wu and others because of, well, breaking the rules. You don’t ever say anything on national television about an emcee like Ghostface Killah in any way but to pay homage. Especially if you’re a white emcee in Action Bronson and you’ve been charged with sounding like Ghost your whole career. In the world outside of fundamentalist Hip Hop, that in itself could be called an homage, but inside that world it’s called “biting.” In that world, Ghost threatens to “gut you like a fish” and calls you a “fat fuck.” In that world, you get surrounded by Wu-Tang affiliate Popa Wu and others at a wake for a legendary emcee’s emcee.

To the social media generation that kind of behavior makes no sense. But to the generation of rule keepers, those edicts are still rules that they live by. In Meek Mill’s case, he ran up against the social media generation that has its own rules and lost. For Action, who reigns supreme in that alt space between rap and being a chef and Vice documentaries, he ran into arguably the most traditional group of all, the Wu-Tang Clan and again, lost. In fact, it goes to show that when you evoke Hip Hop’s more traditional rules in 2015, you will almost always lose in some way. Either you look foolish to this new generation of listeners and consumers, or you end up alienating a fanbase you’ve tried terribly hard to secure or you smack your head on the possibility of a physical confrontation. Ghostface should have made that a song, though. That would have been a winner.

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.