Meek Mill stays true to brand, but ventures into melodic rap
Meek Mill is not behind prison bars. He’s no longer required to check in with parole officers. But despite this freedom, the rapper has not fully rid himself of invisible shackles that still confine him.
“I just feel like I’m a pullover away from running into the wrong cop, getting into a wild situation,” said the rapper and social activist, 34, born Robert Williams. “My whole adult life, I was on probation the whole way. So, it’s like a natural feeling. I would be lying if I said I felt totally free.”
Feelings of uncertainty, along with fears of distrust and betrayal created from the ghosts of his past, have been seared into his new album, “Expensive Pain.”
Staying true to his brand, Meek Mill’s latest project explores balancing fame and wealth while carrying the mental scars from a rough Philadelphia upbringing. Like most things of value, his success has come with a cost.
“In the hood, I had ‘poverty pain’ … when I turned to the streets, I’m 15, 16 years old, not knowing what I’m going to eat at night, not knowing what you’re going to wear tomorrow because we left the house. Your mom at work or dad dead,” said the rapper, who was 5 when his father was killed. “This pain I’m getting now, it’s like I’m losing family members because I ain’t letting people borrow money.”
“Expensive Pain” is Meek Mill’s first full-length project since 2018’s Grammy-nominated “Championships” which came out seven months after his prison release following a controversial sentence in 2017 for technical probation violations involving a decadeold gun and drug possession case. The Pennsylvania trial judge sentenced him to two to four years in prison, but a court ordered his release in April 2018.
In 2019, an appeals court tossed his conviction over doubts about the arresting officer’s credibility. Meek Mill then pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor gun charge in a deal that resolved the 2007 arrest, ending his legal limbo. He is now an activist for justice reform.
Meek Mill’s 18-track “Expensive Pain” boasts some of hip-hop’s brightest young stars such as Lil Baby, Lil Uzi Vert, Young Thug, Lil Durk and R&B star Kehlani.
While known for gritty lyrics and rapid, aggressive rhyme delivery, Meek Mill expands his repertoire this time around. He takes a page from his younger collaborators by experimenting with melodic rap — the sound that now dominates hip-hop.
“Through quarantine, I had like a vicious writer’s block because every time I try to go to a next level, I get real uncomfortable in trying new things. And melody is a lane where all the younger guys been in,” said Meek Mill. “I just got in there and just tried my own thing and stuck to it, and I kind of created an extra lane for my style.”
While Meek Mill holds his own with melodic rap, he didn’t abandon his expertise. On “Halo,” Meek Mill illustrates the juxtaposition of making it out of an impoverished community while family and friends remain.
But this fifth solo studio project is not all tales of street life. There are plenty of tracks like “Outside (100 MPH)” and “Sharing Locations” that celebrate the pleasures that come with being one of the world’s biggest rap stars.
In August, the rapper received the Nelson Mandela Changemaker Award for his work as co-chair with the REFORM Alliance. Jay-Z, Meek Mill and others formed the coalition to lobby for changes to state probation and parole laws.
If Meek Mill had known that he’d experience prison and poverty — and the trauma that comes with them — as a gateway to the success he has now, would he pay those costs?
“Seeing people die and to have PTSD from that, it ain’t worth it to get no money,” Meek Mill said. “It just happened to be the situation. I appreciate it, and it’s my life that built me into who I am. But it ain’t never worth it.”