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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
