Courtesy of BlackEnterprise.com
In court da judge just gave dis bull 11 years for a gun….Smh….crazy!! – @MeekMill
Put it on da [news] how my Rolls Royce in da hood taking kids on they prom 4 free 2 motivate them to go further in life! — @MeekMill
“See, when I do joints like these, I do it for the youngin’ in the ghetto that you ain’t never going to hear his story cause he ain’t gonna make it to tell you … so, you know, it’s crazy: I went to court the other day, the D.A. say she hate me. How you gonna hate me when me and Lou just took 20 racks and put clothes on them kids backs? It’s 30 degrees outside.” — Meek Mill, The Ride
“Like, you can’t listen to Meek Mill and not go, ‘Wow.’ It’s crazy.’” — Nas
Have you heard Meek Mill’s best song? I heard it a couple dozen times until I heard it before a Wale show. It’s his Intro to the album Dreams and Nightmares, an elegant, piano-laden endgame of soundtrack that sounds more like an album’s ending than it does a beginning; more of an ode to a life lived than a promise of better days. The crowd, gathered at Times Square’s Best Buy Theater that night, was electric. Standing together they began rapping in unison:
I used to pray for times like this, to rhyme like this
So I had to grind like that to shine like this
In a matter of time I spent on some locked up s—
In the back of the paddy wagon, cuffs locked on wrists
See my dreams unfold, nightmares come true
It was time to marry the game and I said, “Yeah, I do”
If you want it you gotta see it with a clear-eyed view
The song went on and on like that, until its bass-heavy climax, where Meek Mill (born Robert Williams) proceeds to rap 32-or-so more relentless, angst-ridden bars, each more furious than the next.
Taking in the scene at the Meek Mill listening party Wale concert I thought back to the summer of 2012 and the way the addictive, faux-reverence of the artist’s Key Wane-produced Amen had become a bluesy anthem in the central Brooklyn neighborhood where I lived. People are listening to this man, I thought. And in a way that they aren’t listening to anyone else.
It’s why what he’s doing with his Dreamchasers Summit on August 30 at Temple University’s Liacouras Center is so intriguing. The event counts Meek Mill, Rick Ross, the NBA’s Dion Waiters, Thaddeus Young, and Lou Williams as panelists.
