Don’t Worry (RIP Kobe): A Discussion

2.23.21

Lil Baby, Meek Mill

It is crazy to think that there are still instances where people do not triple check their work when touching on a sensitive topic, to make sure that what you are saying will be represented in the way that you mean it. To think that there is a whole team of people that need to review or listen, and approve something that could do harm to not only others, but their own estate, as well. A song that was literally titled to share love to a late legend, is now under complete fire, due to a line that was downright insensitive, and rubbed most people the very wrong way.

The rapper whom is currently under fire is Meek Mill. While recently people have been asking for new music from the artist, he actually has back-to-back hits that should have been dropping in the very near future. One of them, titled Sharing Locations, featuring Lil Durk and Lil Baby. The second one, which also features Lil Baby, titled Don’t Worry (RIP Kobe). Snippets from each song have been revealed on the internet, and immense backlash comes from a line from the Kobe song.

If I ever lack, I'm goin' out with my chopper, it be another Kobe.

The line that shocked and hurt many. A chopper in this case was Meek’s weapon, but in his wordplay, could be used to describe the helicopter that took Kobe Bryant’s life. While to Meek Mill, this line probably meant when his time comes he will go down as a legend like that of Kobe, he unfortunately delievers it in a way that warrants an immense amount of question and scrutiny to determine where the real intentions were coming from.

In Lil Baby’s verse, he name drops Kobe, and his daughter GiGi whom was unfortunately on board during the tragic accident. Lil Baby actually says he wishes to have a son and daughter and name them Kobe and GiGi. This bar is a bit more clearly giving his respect.

While the world was going crazy over the Meek Mill bar and determining whether it was horribly insensitive, or if it was just another bar that many did not understand, Vanessa Bryant got win of the conversation, and shared her thoughts on Instagram. With a screenshot to the lyrics of Meek Mill’s verse, she tagged him in a message, calling out her issues with what was said about her late husband.

Dear Meek Mill,

I find this line to be extremely insensitive and distasteful. Period. I am not familiar with any of your music, but I believe you can do better than this. If you are a fan, fine, there’s a better way to show your admiration for my husband. This lacks respect and tact.

Vanessa came at Meek harder than I believe we have seen from her. From stating that she’s never heard his music, to calling him merely a fan, and everything else about this statement has had to have put Meek right in his place.

Since this has gone down, Meek Mill has shared a number of Tweets, as he typically does. He has Tweeted and deleted that he is going save again and to f*** your feelings. However, I believe he ultimately realized that the bar came across very disrespectful to many, and he did state that he apologized to Vanessa in private.

It may be an attempt of damage control, but Meek Mill blames headlines and promotional click bate for making people think he would ever purposely use a disrespectful line towards Kobe. Kenny Smith, whom is an NBA commentator, shared his opinions on the matter, in which he stated that he knows how much of a basketball fan Meek Mill is, and that he would give him a pass to the statement, because he believes Meek Mill’s intensions were what he says they were.

The “unreleased track” can currently be listened to on SoundCloud. It is actually a slow song, that surely was meant to tell a deeper story, but ultimately took things too far.

Honestly, I do not think they will officially release this track at this point in time. There could be a situation where they change the verse, like the whole Pusha T dissing Drake on Young Thug’s song without him knowing, but where the song was originally titled after Kobe, all this already blew up, I think it should be halted at where we are at now.

The track with Lil Baby and Lil Durk could be quite interesting. So far in my research, it does not seem like anyone has caught on yet, but Meek Mill makes another questionable line in the comments. He says “I be f****** this NBA ***, b*** know I ain’t ever gon’ say s***.” This is him repeating what the females tell him, and Meek saying that he’ll keep them a secret, but delivery is so quick that I had to play it back ten times to figure out what he was trying to say because I was like, Meek is doing what?! You can hear this song now on YouTube, let me know what you think.

Overall, I am truly a huge Meek Mill fan. I did not even want to write about this because it is disappointing, but always important to really walk through the whole scenario. Hopefully Meek will take this and just be better. Since being released from prison, he has done so much in the Reform space to do just that. I am sure he felt awful about the situation and while maintaining his hard outer-shell, will do better next time. (I said hopefully).