“You niggas crazy if you thought I would quit,” Meek Mill raps on 4/4 Pt. 2 highlight “Slippin’.” That’s certainly what many rap fans encouraged the Philly native to do after Drake’s pair of haymaker disses against him last summer: stop tweeting, stop dropping Drake disses, and just hope that the public forgets about the beef. But Meek just wouldn’t let up. After more “Twitter fingers” exploits and licking his wounds in 2015, he started off the new year with the 4/4 EP, a short precursor to the fourth installment of his Dreamchasers mixtape series. Dissing Drake in a freestyle over “I’m the Plug” didn’t go over well, and he lost a social media war with 50 Cent, but the EP’s other songs were bangers. It was clear that Meek wasn’t going away, and fans are the beneficiaries.
Meek Mill’s best music has always had a strong sense of urgency, but it feels even more palpable on this pair of 4/4 EPs. It’s tough to tell whether that energy is a factor of the stakes being higher or if the past year has resulted in an underestimation of Meek’s talents, but the music delivers. “Fa Sho” starts the project on a brash celebratory note with Meek’s rhymes about money bands, watches and women, with a thumping whip-ready beat by MandoFresh and a catchy hook by T. Dot illDude. The celebration sounds genuine, not just an attempt to convince listeners that Drake isn’t throwing him off–straightforward boasting is part of what Meek does best. “Ricky” attacks enemies with guns blazing, excelling with Meek’s combo of unrepentant anger and veiled pain from losses of loved ones. With 4/4 Pt. 2, he looks to build on that momentum without the mistakes from before. “Slippin’” covers DMX’s hit of the same name with those recognizable grim horns, and succeeds with solid cameos by Future and Dave East.
But 4/4 Pt. 2 saves the best for last with “War Pain,” the type of Drake diss that could have made this beef interesting much earlier. While “Wanna Know” sounded rushed and pleaded with listeners to take the ghostwriting allegations as seriously as Meek did, “War Pain” has the MMG lieutenant sounding comfortable in his role as the underdog. Drake showed himself as the laid back punchline king with his two songs in the beef. Here, over ominous organs and operatic vocal samples by Ben Billions, Meek shows himself as a true foil for his opponent. He dismisses Drake’s boasts (“with your lil’ memes, I be with the real queen”), calls him out as a “culture vulture,” and questions his hate for bubbling Toronto youngster Tory Lanez. He brings up instances of Drake being robbed in his own beloved hometown, and of him gifting a Dreamchasers chain to him. He even had a pair of strong social media zingers. He posted photo that shows Drake holding up said Dreamchasers chain, and when asked how he referenced Drake lyrics from “Summer Sixteen” when the EP dropped the same day, he quipped “the ghostwriter told me!”
Meek’s shots against Drake don’t just land because of their legitimacy, but because of his brash confidence while delivering them: he’s speaking to the fans who share his mindset, not desperately trying to convert naysayers who won’t give him a shot anyway. If he keeps up that approach, Meek can come out of the other side of this dispute stronger than ever.
