As social media being the grounds for announcements these days, Meek Mill took to Instagram to proclaim that there will be a change to his music; however, he “will remain to let [his] people know in these terrible environments to adapt." Including a rant against the system, the MMG rapper shared his experience with bad cops and wrapped up with a powerful, mind provoking thought: “US BLACK PEOPLE ARE STILL AT WAR WITH OURSELVES AND THE SYSTEM IN REAL LIFE!”
On June 27, up and coming Baltimore rapper Lor Scoota was fatally shot in broad daylight at a traffic light after a successful charity basketball game to encourage the youth against the kind of violence that they hear in hip-hop, as well as in his own music. His stardom was expanding evidently as his murderer manifested his jealousy into murder. Having been on Meek and other rappers like that of The Game and Yo Gotti, other local rappers have transitioned their grief of Scoota’s death with frustration, echoing that “Baltimore has a way of quashing those who reach for more," thus confirming Meek’s observation of war in the black communities.
This isn’t about the black on black crime rebuttal to the Black Lives Matter movement. This is the confrontation of the result of the system. Systematically, the black man has always been a target of destruction. Redlining and bid rigging by government-funded companies, black families are put in an environment where they have to either depend on muggy government or fend for themselves. Most of the time, fending for themselves is walking straight into the trap. Mill expresses through his “Insta-rant” that “growing up in America as a young black kid in the ghetto is like suicide," and so to change this, it is right to go straight to the source, the people and, more importantly, the youth.
Despite the connections society makes when it comes to rappers and their music, there is no duality between the two. Scoota rapped about Baltimore and the violence he was attuned to to an extent, but that does not take away from his peace activism. It is misunderstood that rappers speaking their truths and experiences can be masked as them promoting violence; however, Meek's new take on hiphop is a pivotal step to ending such war.
