Norm Kelly Is Prepared to Body Back When It Comes to Meek Mill and His Fans – Exclusive

If you've been following the Drake and Meek Mill beef then you're likely familiar with Norm Kelly. Councillor Kelly has been Drizzy's biggest and loudest defender during both rappers' war of words, which has lasted more than seven months. With each witty tweet the Scarborough, Canada native sends out chiming in on their beef, his popularity grows.

Toronto's political figures have been very entertaining over the last couple of years. Remember Rob Ford? In 2013, Kelly stepped in for the crack-smoking former mayor, who was more known for his outrageous moments than his political accomplishments. After John Tory took office for the mayor in December 2014, Kelly went back to his post as councilman and now finds himself in the middle of the beef between Drake and Meek Mill. Whenever there's an opening to throw a haymaker by tweeting at the Philadelphia rapper, he takes it.

Kelly's interjections started after Meek Mill's Twitter Twitter rant aim at Drake shook up the internet last July. Coming to Drake's defense was the Toronto Councilor, tweeting that Meek was not welcome in Canada. He even called Drake a national hero. Since then, Norm Kelly and Meek have traded multiple shots on the social media site. Is the politician meddling too much? If you're a Meek fan you would think he was.

So we got Councillor Norm Kelly on the phone to discuss his rise in hip-hop culture, his real thoughts on the Meek Mill and Drake beef plus his infamous "L" tweet.

XXL: Your tweets have gotten you a lot of attention. Do you think you’ve become more recognizable with the younger demographic because of it?

Norm Kelly: Oh absolutely. Now the year previous, the mayor of the city of Toronto got into a lot of trouble and the government took his authorities away and gave it to me as the deputy mayor. During that year, It was the older generation that would look at me, stop me, shake my hand and thanked me for stepping in during very troubling times. After the election of the new mayor and I went back to being a councillor and my Twitter account took off, now when I go outside, it’s the younger generation, kids in high school and universities, millennials and what you guys would call generation Z, that stop me and talk to me. The only difference from than the older generation is these guys want to take selfies.

So how often do you talk to Drake?

He’s a busy guy. We both have extraordinary busy schedules. He is mostly away from Toronto but when he gets back and it fits the schedule, then we have those chances to get together.

Have you seen Drake in concert? Do you have a favorite Drake moment?

I saw him at Frosh Night at Ryerson University. It’s one of the downtown universities in Toronto, one of the fastest growing universities, one of the coolest places to get your undergraduate degree. Almost 6,000 people in the drizzly rain listening to Future, Drake and myself. It was a remarkable evening.

In the States, hip-hop culture is being used a lot during this election. Do you see hip-hop influences in politics becoming more common or is this just a moment?

It may be, I just guess, it's election time and Hillary [Clinton] wants to gain as much support as possible, and that’s understandable, by appealing to a certain generation perhaps the African American community at the same time. For me, I don’t have to worry about re-elections. There’s no political goal in mind. I won my last election in my area by 85 percent. I’m just having fun with a Toronto guy and through him I reconnected to a younger generation and I’m just having fun; so far, I’ve been very lucky and that’s being realized.

So who thought of sending the "L" tweet to Meek?

Well, that had come up before on another issue. I’m always asking questions with the other people in my family. The staff had put together an "L," 'cause when I heard of "L" I didn’t even know what the hell it meant. When I was told what it meant, I wanted to use it. But you have to use it at the right time you can’t over use it. One of the secrets to Twitter I think is the shorter you keep the tweet, the harder the blow. So there was a considerable background administratively to the "L" but that was the perfect opportunity.

What’s your secret with Twitter?

It's just trial and error. You can’t go to a bookstore and get Twitter for Dummies.

If Drake and Meek Mill become friends, what would you do? Do you become friends with Meek too?

[Meek] is an interesting guy. He almost sounds like a throwback in a way. But most of my, I think all of my tweets, have been reactive. I’m just returning fire.

With all the attention your Twitter is getting you, because of your commentary on Drake and Meek beef, what does your wife think?

Jeez, I don’t know. With hip-hop it has its owns clues and context. In the wonderful world of politics, the rule of thumb is I don’t care what you say about me as long as you spell my name correctly.

NBA All-Star is this weekend, there’s going to be tons of rappers. Are you hanging with them?

If the opportunity presents itself, I would.

Some people don’t like you on Twitter? Have you seen the messages Meek sent to you?

Meek has his following, its very passionate. Some of the tweets that are directed at me express a desire to wreak physical havoc on me [laughs], but you know, if that’s their way of venting, that’s fine. You know I grew up in Canada playing hockey, and I played a pretty good game, I’m used to contact. If you want to body me, I’m ready to body back.

Any other Toronto artist you like?

[Drake] stands head and shoulders above most of them. The Weeknd has come along and he’s from my part of Toronto. Toronto has six different boroughs and I’m from Scarborough, same as the Weeknd. Toronto got some of the best producers anywhere to help local talent and I’m going to see what I can do to help promote them. Toronto is one of the hottest spots for contemporary hip-hop music for not only in Canada but I would say North America.

Sum up in your own words the Meek Mill and Drake’s beef.

It was a confrontation between artistry and emotion. Drake and Meek are the personification of both of those two characteristics.

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