One of the interesting things about the Meek Mill-Drake beef is that it's played out, in part, on social media. That means a lot of lame, passive-aggressiveInstagram posts about the other person, as well as a general dilution of what it would mean to have a classic rap beef (is that what you thought we were going to get out of Drake, one of the most self-consciously amiable people in the world?). But it also gave a pretty easy way to track popular opinion on the beef (and is still doing so). And if you haven't been paying attention: Meek is losing. You can track that how here, with some of the best Meek Mill memes.meek's comments on instagram be like 😂😂😂😂 charged up pic.twitter.com/KLSXXuG1h4
-- Wolfie (@wolfieraps) July 26, 2015It took me a very long time to understand why Drake is so successful (or, at least, the way of thinking about it that works for me) -- he is a human meme. That means he's infinitely flexible, like water, capable of moving into many distinct musical and personal boxes before returning effortlessly returning to his earlier form. That's terrifying, but it also explains why pretty much any object he touches instantly becomes the subject of mass scrutiny on the internet. So it's not the surprising that the use of the iPhone battery symbol for the "Charged Up" art has led to a proliferation of memes mocking Meek for forgetting to bring his extra USB battery.
speaking of Drake's "Back to Back" . I wonder if Meek will buy my shirt? pic.twitter.com/dku4WBJIPx
-- youtube/alonzolerone (@alonzolerone) July 29, 2015
RT @ElliottWilson: "I'm still waiting for that email, New York"--@funkflexpic.twitter.com/Eb1HF8H6UG
-- Steph (@StephGhost) July 28, 2015These mostly came down on the head of Funk Flex, who promised he would play Meek's diss track on his Hot 97 show and failed to deliver (before actually playing it on Thursday) -- but they still managed to mock Meek for ghosting on the fight he initiated in the first place.
"You stood up for yourself that's all that matters"pic.twitter.com/RLdk76Smvm
-- Mos Def (YasiinBae) (@JuanGleesh) July 31, 2015Poor Nicki Minaj, having to watch this trash play out in her house. Many of the jokes about Meek have focused on Nicki's perceived displeasure at his childishness (though she's been a saint in avoiding saying anything). This has some precedent in the music, too -- some of Drake's bars in "Back to Back" kind of lazily try to emasculate Meek just because his girlfriend is super successful (which, hmmm), but that didn't stop the internet from seizing on that for its own edification.
Retweet if your wifi got more bars than Meek
-- Jesse Marco (@JesseMarco) July 31, 2015And, of course, there are the jokes about "Wanna Know" itself, calling out everything from Meek's accusation that someone peed on Drake once to the fact that Meek spends a bunch of the track sampling the Drake reference tracks and calling out... artists who are not Drake. Complex has several good roundupsof these jokes (and have been scarily on-top of the Drake-Meek social game).
Of course, there are still some ways Meek could recover from this and regain the upper hand in the beef. Maybe he could travel to L.A. under cover of night, steal a master copy of Frank Ocean's album, and leak it to the public?