Vanessa Bryant, widow of basketball legend Kobe Bryant, has blasted lyrics from a leaked Meek Mill song as “extremely insensitive and disrespectful.” Meek says he has apologized.
As Complex notes, lyrics to a track believed to be called “Don’t Worry (RIP Kobe)” appeared on the internet with the line, “This bitch I’m fuckin’ always tell me that she love but she ain’t ever showed me/ Yeah, and if I ever lack, I’m goin’ out with my chopper, it be another Kobe.” The joke references the events of January of last year, when Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna (aka Gigi) died in a helicopter crash.
On Tuesday, Vanessa Bryant responded in a social media post. “I find this line to be extremely insensitive and disrespectful. Period,” she wrote. “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.”
In response, Meek Mill tweeted that he had reached out to Bryant. “I apologized to her in private earlier today,” he said, “not to the public…Nothing I say on my page directed to a internet viral moment or the family of a grieving woman! If you care about someone grieving change the subject!”
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It’s surprising, to say the least, that after Meek rapped the offending lyrics he blamed people on the internet for causing the “grieving woman” harm. So far, Bryant hasn’t issued a follow-up statement on whether or not she’s accepted the apology. But this is hardly the first time a rapper has pushed the boundaries of good taste for a joke. A few years ago, Lil Wayne offered a not-very-apologetic apology for the line “beat that pussy up like Emmett Till.”
Last week, Meek Mill got into a heated confrontation with Tekashi 6ix9ine outside a club.
Vanessa Bryant addresses Meek Mill’s lyrics about Kobe. pic.twitter.com/SDyRAKQQ6u
— SAINT (@saint) February 23, 2021
I apologized to her in private earlier today not to the public…Nothing I say on my page directed to a internet viral moment or the family of a grieving woman! If you care about someone grieving change the subject!
— Meek Mill (@MeekMill) February 23, 2021
