DJ Akademiks called out Meek Mill for “hypocritical messaging” after the Philly rapper tweeted his empathy towards soldiers sent to war by comparing their experience to people in the “trenches” back home.
“This is pretty much the most self-indulgent, narcissistic tweet you could probably have about this situation,” Akademiks said on his YouTube channel. “Because while we’re trying to give some light to the men and women who serve in our armed forces (…), Meek Mill had to say that being in ‘the streets’ is like being in war.”
One time for the soldiers that really gotta go to war and put ya life on the line …. we from the trenches so we know the feeling of having ya life on the line 24/7 not knowing if you gone make it home!
— Meek Mill (@MeekMill) January 5, 2020
While Akademiks understood Meek’s point that those in “the streets” may face life-threatening danger, he thought the comparison went too far.
“So you’re telling me that somebody who’s in the marines, who could get targeted right now with a C4, a landmine (or) hit by some type of missile – they’re basically fighting for people who’ve never even seen the horrors of war – they are having the same experiences like Meek Mill?” he said. “In the ‘trenches?’ Bro, come on man.”
He also highlighted Meek’s failure to ever acknowledge that “street life shit is really crime” and that this starkly contrasts the “men and women who volunteer (…) to risk their life and protect the life of others.”
Akademiks sees Meek’s tweet as a symptom of an underlying messaging issue.
“I can’t really tell where Meek Mill stands on a lot of things,” he continued. “Often times he’s going for something good, but in his music and some of the coded messages he sends on Twitter, he’s very much talking ‘the streets.”
He cited Meek’s stance on prison reform as an example.
“He’ll be advocating for prison reform, but he’ll also be sending messages through his music that send people to prison. Which one is it?”
Viewing this hypocrisy as a systemic problem, AK also made an appeal to Hip Hop as a whole.
“We really gotta waken up,” he added. “I’m telling you, this ‘street mentality’ that a lot of these rappers push (just to eat), but still, at a certain time when they wanna show that they’re woke, they flip on the other side of the fence conveniently – this is a very detrimental mindset to the whole society.”
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