Meek on the Docket
Amazon documents the rapper’s long legal ordeal in a five-part series
meek mill never set out to be an activist for criminal justice reform. Nursing a glass of green juice at a Beverly Hills hotel shortly after a headlining stint at Staples Center, the 32-year- old often seems like he’d prefer to discuss just about anything else. His rap career, for one, which after nearly a decade of legal stops and starts, finally reached the level it had long promised with last winter’s platinum- certified “Championships.”
But activism — or as he prefers to call it, advocacy — is nonetheless something that’s been thrust upon him, and Amazon’s upcoming five-part docu-series “Free Meek” (it premieres Aug. 9) details how this quick, intense, yet often slyly irreverent rapper from North Philadelphia became the unlikely public face of America’s broken probation system.
“I don’t want to be a rapper who’s just this serious guy all the time,” he says. “I think most activists have it in their heart that this is what they love to do seven days a week. Me, I don’t love to do interviews about reform seven days a week. This wasn’t a part of my life until it became my life experience, but I’ve seen people stand up for me, so I’m gonna use what I’ve built up to pay people back.”
Perhaps it’s his natural reticence that makes him such an effective spokesman. Up until July 24, when a Philadelphia appeals court finally overturned his 2008 conviction on drug and gun charges, Meek had spent his entire adult life in the criminal justice system. It all started when he was arrested for gun possession as a teenager. He admitted he had a gun from the start, but was stunned to find a 19-count indictment against him, with charges for everything from drug possession to felony endangerment, all of which he has consistently denied. He thought he caught a lucky break when a judge offered him a plea deal (a year in prison, followed by five years of probation), but he quickly found that even out of prison, the system could be just as stifling.
For the next decade, Meek watched as his burgeoning rap career was sabotaged by the conditions of his constantly ballooning parole, which frequently kept him from touring and promoting his music and often saw him back in trouble for minor infractions. This culminated in 2017, when Meek was given a two- to four-year prison sentence for parole violations after being caught in an Instagram video popping a wheelie on a dirt bike.
“I couldn’t see my future in the music business anymore,” he says. “If you miss out for two years, your whole career could possibly be over. You can’t really see the
Your dreams aren’t really the same when you’re locked in a prison.” Meek Mill
future; you can’t see the hope. And your dreams aren’t really the same when you’re locked in a prison.”
The almost farcical discrepancy between the harmlessness of Meek’s violations and the severity of the punishment turned him into a national cause célèbre: Protest marches were held; powerful friends like Jay-z, whose Roc Nation manages Meek’s career and just entered into a joint venture with him to launch a label (called Dream Chasers), and Philadelphia 76ers co-owner Michael Rubin demanded his release; and in a show of support, the Philadelphia Eagles stormed the field for the 2018 Super Bowl to Meek’s signature track,“dreams and Nightmares.”
It took all that assorted firepower to get him released on bail after five months. While Meek was still inside, Rubin encouraged producer Eli Holzman to develop a documentary on his struggles. Holzman partnered with Roc Nation and journalist Paul Solotaroff, with Amazon soon coming on board.
“Meek was still in jail at that time, and the earliest interviews with him were over the phone from prison,” says Chris Castallo, Amazon’s head of unscripted. “We had no idea if and when Meek would get out, or where the story would lead.”
Meek is well aware that he’s an unusual case — most people in prison for parole violations don’t have billionaires advocating for them on the outside — but by focusing on the particulars of his case, the series illustrates just how easily well-meaning parolees can get sucked back into the revolving door of the system. Meek says he hopes projects like “Free Meek” and Ava Duvernay’s “When They See Us” will open eyes and raise awareness, all while his recently established nonprofit, the Reform Alliance, is petitioning for changes to the probation system. Meanwhile, he’s making up for lost time in the studio, “taking my trauma and making it rhyme.”
“Do I think about what it cost me? Sure,” he says of his protracted legal battle. “But at the same time, it all comes together. I overcame it, and it gave me a great story, and hopefully it inspires people later on. It kind of made me into who I am now.”