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Meek Mill slams Drake, accuses him of using ghostwriters

Meek Mill really gave it Drake on Twitter, saying Drake did not write his own lyrics. Well, the Internet really gave it back to Mill. The Times’ Christy Khoshaba has the details.

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Where would Paul McCartney be without John Lennon? Where would Keith Richards be without fellow ”Glimmer Twin” Mick Jagger? Where would Drake be without ... Quentin Miller?

If rapper Meek Mill’s tweets are to be trusted, not as far as Drake would get on his own.

After posting a note on Tuesday accusing an unnamed other of being “so fake u can blow they cover in two days!” Mill got specific. Mill went on a Twitter rant that alleged, among other things, that Drake doesn’t pen all of his lyrics.

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“Stop comparing drake to me too.... He don’t write his own raps! That’s why he ain’t tweet my album because we found out!”

And:

“The whole game know forreal they scared to tell the truth! I can’t wait tok these guys and sit back and act like they don’t know!”

Alluding to Drake’s verse on “R.I.C.O,” Meek wrote, “He ain’t even write that verse on my album and if I woulda knew I woulda took it off my album..... I don’t trick my fans! Lol.” (In Drake’s defense, the line “My dad is from Memphis and I am the king / I should probably just move in to Graceland,” is autobiographically accurate. Or at least the part about his dad is.)

On Wednesday, Mill posted a two-word tweet: “Quentin Miller.”

Cue (slow news cycle) outrage at Mill’s implication: that Drake uses Miller as a ghostwriter and, as such, the artistry is somehow tainted. Left unsaid was that Miller, an artist who has appeared on a few Drake-supported projects in the past, could hardly be called a ghostwriter, considering he’s been officially credited on Drake tracks.

Drake’s not the first to face allegations of collaborating on rhymes. Wordsmiths such as Ghostface Killah, Kanye West, Dr. Dre and Nas have all been rumored to hire what in any other field would be called writing partners. Labelmate Lil Wayne, in fact, has been alleged to have employed the help of Drake.

The question, though, is whether it really matters.

It doesn’t.

Unlike lyricists in other pop genres, hip-hop writers live and die by autobiography and the skill at turning first-hand experience into poetry. Would Drake’s talent, such that it is, be diminished if he copped to pasting in a few choice verses from a lesser-known talent?

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Mill likely has the answer. If his schedule is to be trusted, he’ll be tweeting about this until Thursday.

Twitter: @liledit

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