Instead, "Lil Nigga Snupe" feels like it's doubling down on the intensity, the urgency, that is a core part of the Meek Mill project. Over a spacious audio canvas courtesy Boi-1da, Meek doesn't go for the slower, more deliberate rap style other artists might adopt for a R.I.P. "I gave Snupe the money when he won," says Meek.
For more on this, check out Brendan Frederick's must-read 2Pac essay in our recent list of the 10 Best Rappers of the '90s.)ĭuring the trip, Snupe got into a battle with a rapper named Retro, and won Meek $10,000 from Retro's sponsor, DeSean Jackson of the Philadelphia Eagles. (Most rap fans like artists in both categories, of course. Perhaps one of the biggest divides-as it's been since the period when Pac and Biggie were at their respective peaks-is between fans who enjoy rap for its ability to be direct, and those who enjoy the process of abstraction.
It's some intangible blend of all (or some) of the above. It has something to do with a rapper's rhetorical style: Dexterity, rhyme schemes, punchlines, wordplay. Being "lyrical" is dependent on a highly subjective magic formula, and once you've decide its ingredients, that divides you from other tribes of rap fans. In hip-hop, the word "lyrical" gets thrown around an awful lot without its meaning ever really being unpacked. My shit is extra raw, a lot of profanity."Ī Complex commenter recently questioned Meek's bona fides as a "lyrical" rapper. Maybe when I start living that type of life, maybe I will start crossing over and spitting shit that’s more subtle or not raw. If I talk about the hood, I was probably in the hood that week. If I’m in Miami, you can tell by my rap I was in Miami that week, if I’m talking about Club Liv, Collins Avenue, things like that. "It’s a decision you make, but you know me. But while it doesn't seem like he's spent (wasted?) much time thinking about the mechanics behind it all, it does open a window into Meek's perception of what " the style of music he makes" actually is. Although it doesn't explain why rappers don't perceive the mainstream as a possibility, or why the mainstream is welcoming fewer rap stars into its machinery than it did, say, a decade earlier. In other words, for Meek, the answer is straightforward and simple: rappers are looking at the short-term money, when the long term money is on the mainstream side. The other side is where a lot of money at." I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, some people like to shoot for the money. People know they’re going to a certain level, and they just shooting for the money. Questions have evident answers there is no sentence that might begin, "Depending on how you look at it." When asked if he feels like the style of music he makes is at a disadvantage in the industry, Meek responds, "Hell yeah." He's asked why. In keeping with the kind of focus and drive common to athletes, he doesn't spend much time on self-analysis, doubling back, or over-thinking. Meek came by the Complex offices earlier this week. Some rappers spit with intentionally laconic sluggishness, making theater out of effortlessness by comparison, Meek is all lyrical calisthenics. It makes you want to rap, the same way watching basketball makes you want to take to the court and hit a three.
LIL SNUPE KILLED OVER A GAME OF 2K FULL
Listening to him rap is like watching an athlete perform: there's a fluency to the way his words hit the track, the confident momentum of an artist stretching out to the full limits of his corporeal potential. (There are some promising signs that the industry could start to recognize this area as an opportunity for growth.)Īs a rapper, Meek has a vigorous, kinetic delivery built through years of practice, reciting lines as if by muscle memory. But many artists who perform in this style seem more marginalized in the industry than they might have been a decade previous. The tradition he comes from hasn't been lost. More than ever, Meek feels like one of the only rap stars of his kind, at least at his level of popularity, in 2013. This delivery style allows him to cut through the white noise. Likewise, his stories still prize directness, a rhetorical straightforwardness enhanced by his shout-flow.
The record shouldn't surprise folks already familiar with Meek's earlier Dreamchasers tapes: it's packed with high octane production and the Philly MC's searing, intense rap style. Meek Mill's Dreamchasers 3 was released September 29.
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