Fighter: Meek Mill
Trainer: Dreamchasers, Maybach Music Group, Atlantic Records
Cutmen: Bennie Briggman, Butter Beats (Dolla Bill Kidz), Cubeatz, Foreign Teck, Honorable C.N.O.T.E., Infamous Rell, Jahlil Beats, MP808, Papamitrou, Nick Verruto, OZ, RaRa, Sonny Digital, Sound M.O.B., StreetRunner, Tarik Azzouz, Tariq Beats, The Beat Bully
Weight Class: Gangsta Rap, Trap Star
Notable Fire: Shine, Lights Feat. Don Q, Two Wrongs Feat. Guordan Banks & Pusha T, Litty Feat. Tory Lanez
Notable Trash: Way Up Feat. Tracy T, You Know Feat. YFN Lucci
Tale of the Tape: After taking more L’s than the Philadelphia 76ers and Brandon Knight combined, Meek Mill needed to come out strong on DC4 to reestablish his place amongst his rap contemporaries. The fourth mixtape in the “Dreamchasers” series starts off strong with “On the Regular”, where Meek is at his best, yelling raps over an uptempo beat with a familiar snare sound on repeat.
Meek Mill played to his strengths on DC4 which is for the best. “On the Regular” is followed up by “Blessed Up” which follows the same formula, beginning with motivational Meek stating, “You already know who you are. You ain’t trying to impress nobody who you got to impress? You done came through the ranks. You’ve been tested, you know what I mean and you stood up.” Meek isn’t running away from his win/loss record, but smartly doesn’t directly point at Drake, Game or anyone else throughout the album.
DC4 continues with the standout “Litty” featuring Tory Lanez, which highlights the major problem with the album. Meek Milli gets outshined on nearly every feature; which total nine of the 14 tracks.
Meek seems out of place on both “Froze” with Nicki Minaj and Lil Uzi Vert, and “Offended” featuring Young Thug and 21 Savage. Quavo, the notable voice from Migos, hogs all of the juice on “The Difference”. “Lights Out” might as well be a Don Q solo, as the Bronx native made Meek just an opening act on his own song.
The only song with a feature that Meek was on equal footing was “Two Wrongs” featuring Guordon Banks an Pusha T, which subsequently makes it one of the better songs on the album. This track consists of a good balance between the three artists, something that this mixtape lacked. Meek rapped on the Faustian aspects of the game, “Had thoughts about murking my niggas/Cause it be the closest of niggas that change on you quick and know most of your business”.
Conversely, “You Know” and “Way Up” both have features and both are straight trash. The tracks are back to back and are a high cost to pay to get to “Tony Story 3” (yep, the Tony saga continues) where Mills again shows off his story telling skills, proving he can carry a track on his own.
Fight Night: Loser by split decision
Truth be told, Meek Mill may have done himself a disservice with the bevy of features on his return album. “On the Regular”, “Blessed Up”, “Shine” and “Tony Story 3” are all solo acts that are the strength of this project; if he could’ve replicated their impact two more times while replacing the aforementioned trash songs, this would’ve been a more balanced and much improved tape. Then again, considering all of the public huMILIation and ridicule Meek has endured over the last 18 months, it’s quite possible his team felt the vast number of features were a necessity. Perhaps this was less a mixtape and more a PR move— an attempt to reestablish some much needed credibility in the streets by laying down tracks with some of the game’s hottest and most respected non-MMG artists. If so, we can still safely assume each featured artist’s check did cash, and in the end too many weak songs and too many weak appearances by Meek Mill throughout ultimately holds DC4 back.