Meek Mill is defending Rick Ross’s date rape lyric in “U.O.E.N.O” and is actually the first celebrity to bring up a point that has been discussed on Twitter ever since the controversy started. Meanwhile, it seems like Reebok couldn’t take anymore of the heat and decided to drop Ross from their endorsement deal.
It’s not clear if Meek Mill got his inspiration from Twitter or not, but he is the first person to talk to the media about what the Twitterverse has already been discussing.
Is there a bit of hypocrisy behind the way Rick Ross is being slammed for his date rape lyric when other rappers have been doing it for generations?
Meek Mill opened up to the Urban Informer:
“I don’t even care about nobody criticizing no lyrics. People rap about killing stuff all day. Biggie said, ‘Rape your kid, throw her over the bridge’ back then, it was nothing, it was just hip-hop. Now you got all these weirdos on these social sites voicing their opinion about something anybody say.”
Despite his terrible choice of words and the bad decision to call half of his fans “weirdos” (because those are indeed the same people who are on Twitter discussing music in the first place) you have to admit he certainly has a point.
While this certainly doesn’t excuse Ross’s lyrics, it does beg the question: are people only speaking up now because it looks good? Is there a bit of addiction to our social media soap boxes that we are willing to verbalize our distaste for music without really having any intentions to make a difference or remain critical of music in the future?
I do have to say, however, that a comparison between Rick Ross and Biggie made me cringe when you consider the difference in actual talent between the rappers.
But it was Meek Mill’s second comparison that really seemed to have missed the mark:
Meek called rap “imaginary visual,” comparing the violent nature of rap music to screenwriters inserting a scene of sexual assault into a script.
“I don’t care, I’m from the hood. I never really cared about what nobody saying in no rap. Rap’s always been talking about killing, drugs, all types of stuff. So you can’t just criticize no one thing nobody say. It’s imaginary visual. If a writer write about somebody getting raped in a movie, that mean he a rapist or he want girls to get raped? No, he just wrote about that in a movie.”
The problem here is that movies are written to be stories and there is tons of context around whatever rape scene you would see in a film. That scene of sex, drugs, rape, violence or whatever the case may be usually has a bigger purpose. In Ross’s verse he pretty much just says he’ll slip the molly in her drink and enjoy it and then proceeds to talk about how much money he has.
While the infamous “date rape” lyric has since been removed, Ross may want to remove his line about how he would die for his Reeboks because the brand certainly doesn’t share the same sentiments towards him.
The Grio revealed that Reebok has had enough of being in hot water and have dropped Ricky Rozay from the endorsement deal:
The sneaker brand said in a statement Thursday that “Reebok holds our partners to a high standard and we expect them to live up to the values of our brand. Unfortunately, Rick Ross has failed to do so.”
“We are very disappointed he has yet to display an understanding of the seriousness of this issue or an appropriate level of remorse,” the statement read. “At this time, it is in everyone’s best interest for Reebok to end its partnership with Mr. Ross.”
Now the real question is: Will all this buzz over the rap lyric be forgotten a few months from now? Will people truly turn this into a revolutionary moment for rap or will people just scurry on about their way feeling as if they have accomplished something magnificent simply by getting Reebok to pull the plug on the endorsement deal?
