Drake vs Meek Mill (2015) ignites

Why it matters

July 21, 2015. Meek Mill, on Twitter, accused Drake of using ghostwriters, specifically Quentin Miller, for verses on Drake's recent records (including Meek's own album Dreams Worth More Than Money, which had just come out). Drake responded four days later with a Funkmaster Flex-premiered diss track called "Charged Up." Five days after that, Drake released a second diss track called "Back to Back." The Drake-vs-Meek beef ran hot for about six weeks. "Back to Back" became one of the most-played Drake singles of 2015 and went platinum. Meek's response "Wanna Know" did not land. The cultural consensus, by August 2015, was that Drake had won the round decisively, which created a kind of comedy-of-defeat around Meek that he spent the next several years trying to recover from. Meek Mill himself has, in subsequent interviews, said he regrets how the exchange went. Quentin Miller's role in Drake's writing process has continued to be debated. You can argue the beef ended Meek's commercial peak. You would probably be right. You can also argue Drake's win on "Back to Back" is part of why the broader rap culture has, since 2015, largely stopped caring about ghostwriting allegations. That argument also has evidence.