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Willamette Week has no shortage of haters. Few, though, have ever converted their beef into a full-on dis track—and even fewer have turned it into a music video.
But rapper Swiggle Mandela went there.
The video for "Dear Willamette Week" opens with someone urinating on a recent issue, which makes it clear that this is not a letter to the editor complimenting our reporting on Portland's pursuit of a Major League Baseball franchise.
"Dear Willamette Week you don't know shit about the streets/You should shut the fuck up when you speak," he raps while he and some friends alternately toss the paper into a fireplace and use it to spark up some blunts.
His main issue appears to be with our local hip-hop coverage, making what seems to be references to this year's Best New Band list and apparently taking a thinly veiled shot at suburban viral rapper Wynne: "It's young Swiggle, voice of the young people/Here to tell you hip-hop doesn't live in Lake Oswego."
He also accuses us of smoking meth.
Harsh, but as an act of media criticism, we certainly appreciate this more than having a mound of topsoil anonymously dumped in our parking lot.
So we reached to Mandela and asked, what's the beef? Here's an edited version of his response:
