Meek Mill came under fire last week, when a Philadelphia pastor, Jomo K. Johnson, called for a ban of Meek’s Drake-assisted new single, “Amen.” And though Meek initially lashed out at Johnson for his criticism, Meek recently apologized to Johnson and brought an end to the ban.
Meek extended an olive branch to the pastor during a recent stop at BET’s “106 & Park,” where he explained that he never meant to offend his Christian listeners, but argued that religious figures in general find hip-hop music to be offensive.
“People find all types of stuff offensive. I don’t think no preacher or no church approves of any type of rap music — because rap music, period, is a lot of bad stuff said,” he said. “But at the end of the day, it’s real life. And me, I wasn’t trying to disrespect no religion or anything like that. My whole family is Christian. I have a half Christian, half Muslim family. The situation, the song, that’s what energy it felt and if anybody feel disrespected, I ain’t do it in that way… I did it just because it was a good feeling — that’s the feeling it gave me so I said, ‘Amen, church.’ I didn’t do it with bad intentions at the end of the day.”
After witnessing Meek’s on-air apology, Johnson responded with a public statement, lifting the boycott.
“This apology was the condition for lifting the Call-to-Action boycott. While I have made the choice not to listen to or support any artist that promotes blasphemy or misogyny in their music, I appreciate Mr. Williams being willing to acknowledge his wrong. It is my sincere hope, that he, along with all popular rappers with their fans, will embrace God’s total forgiveness by turning from the sin promoted through mainstream hip-hop, and trust solely in Christ for salvation.”
Well, we’re glad that Meek and Johnson have now squashed their beef and that they’re friction didn’t grow into an even bigger feud.
And Meek isn’t the only star who’s had to issue a public apology to curb the rage of angry fans. Check out some other famous apologies below. – nicholas robinson
