LEVEL Best Man 2020
2020 Was a Banner Year for Letting Black Women Down
Instead of holding each other accountable, Black men rushed to support celebrities who displayed the worst of us
Update 6/7/22: Level has a new home. You can read this article and other new articles by visiting LEVELMAN.com.
Hip-hop’s brooding edgelord antagonism toward Black women didn’t appear out of nowhere — blame Western patriarchy for that — but it’s thrived because of power-hungry Black men. And in 2020, no instance made this clearer than what went down between Megan Thee Stallion, Tory Lanez, and an internet full of hip-hop fans.
The story’s been told, but it bears repeating. In July, after a post-party dispute, Tory Lanez shot Meg in both her feet. She posted pictures of them, and after some diplomatic restraint explained the whole story on her Instagram, calling out Tory’s team for seeding lies to hip-hop blogs. Rather than show solidarity in the midst of a clearly traumatic situation, hip-hop icons from Cam’ron to 50 Cent took the opportunity to get jokes off instead. That, in turn, stirred up their own followers — most of them Black men, and many of them exhibiting big incel energy — to vent their own unnecessary feelings.
