Meek Mill is being mocked as “a penny-pinching grinch” after he was caught on video giving $20 to seven maskless bottle boys to split among them.
The 33-year-old rapper, real name Robert Rihmeek Williams, took to his Instagram to share footage of the boys — “Atl RUNTZ” — trying to sell him water at a red light.
Meek handed the seven boys $20 to split amongst them. “Don’t put your hand on my car,” he barked at one boy, before telling him, “I just gave y’all money, man. Y’all gotta split it!”
Meek’s cheap behavior so close to Christmas angered his followers who called him out for “performative activism.”
“I don’t need to recored [sic] myself doing a good deed,” Meek wrote in response to one fan, while another commenter wrote that the $20 was “disrespectfully low,” and amounted to only 2 or 3 bucks per kid.
As the outrage continued on social media, Meek wrote, “They appreciated it, they just hustling kids.”
Atlanta motorists are accustomed to being surrounded at red lights by boys selling bottles of water.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms tried to crack down on the enterprising youngsters by ordering police to direct the boys to “safer and more beneficial opportunities” to earn money.
“We appreciate the entrepreneurial spirit of youth who are selling water to motorists,” said Bottoms in July. “But we have seen an increase in unsafe and violent activity in some locations and cannot allow it to continue.”
