On July 2 at a packed Gramercy Theater in New York City for CRWN hosted by Elliott Wilson, Meek Mill was decked out in jewelry, and he entertained fans as they stared into his transparent kingdom. A kingdom built on brutal honesty (“I was at Wale neck”), candid emotions (“bosses got feelings too”) and relatability (“I’m trying to get my Instagram lit, too.”). Time to take a peek inside Meek Mill’s transparent kingdom.
Internet Baby
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“I’m just an Internet baby.”– Meek Mill
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Robert Rahmeek Williams was born and raised in Philadelphia, but Meek Mill’s life has been a part of the fabric of the Internet since the YouTube explosion of the late 2000’s. His nappy-haired teenage ciphers, his five years of courting Nicki Minaj, and even the very moment he signed his name on his Maybach Music Group contract, have been able to be streamed on the Internet for his entire mainstream career. A major talking point during the CRWN interview was how lit (or how not lit) Meek’s Instagram account is, with the Philadelphia rhyme slayer saying he would ask friends about the latest happenings on Instagram while he was in jail last year.
“Because I’m a street dude I can’t go on the computer. The computer is the most information anybody can ever give you. You can Google anything.”
Even though his life’s all over the net, Meek proclaims his social media presence is all wonky because there’s no method to his Twitter madness. He may tweet a rap lyric about being in Barbados while stuck in Philly. He estimates the hype cycle of news is about 60 days until it’s on to the next new trend. The internet allows Meek to keep an eye on an industry he’s never felt fully comfortable in.
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Hollyhood
“It’s really not Hollywood with them, it’s Hollyhood. Not in our circle. We don’t be coming around industry people like that.” -Meek Mill
Los Angeles has long been the destination for entertainers wishing to take small dreams into movie screen sized realities. Meek sees it as a vapid wasteland of disingenuous opportunists. To drive home his point he asked the crowd, “You don’t want to see me go to L.A. and come back with purple hair and shit, right?” But before denouncing a hairstyle Los Angeles resident Wiz Khalifa has donned he explained how his disdain is deeper than hair dye:
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“It’s a bunch of people from Hollywood that ain’t from Hollywood and not grounded. I told somebody the other day, I said ‘L.A., you over here in Hollywood, don’t nobody love you. Everybody trying to make money off of you or get a look from you. It’s all an angle.”
Meek is the diamond in the rough with coal marks so his gems on the diverse images of Black men from the hood come off as, “We used to sell coco and ride dirt bikes at the same time.” Meek’s transparency also gets the best of him at points in the interview. Early in the interview he defends his relationship with Nicki Minaj by lamenting he “ain’t just going to do no fake shit for TV.” But when asked later about what it was like for 2011 Meek Mill to sign with MMG, he claimed he told label boss Rick Ross, “I don’t give a fuck about what we got to do, just put me on TV and let me get this money.”
Boyfriend Meek
“I had to hear niggas screaming all this crazy shit about the girl I like and not say nothing”-Meek Mill on Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda” video being popular in prison
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Meek Mill has been featured on a song titled “Tell That Hoe I Did That”. But the visible giddiness and habit of constantly extending answers regarding his new girlfriend Nicki Minaj demonstrated a man ready to give up promiscuity for a ride or die chick. In his recent cover story for The Fader, it was revealed that Meek took Nicki’s advice on releasing the Dreams Worth More Than Money single “All Eyes on You” where she and Chris Brown are featured. In his CRWN interview, Meek elaborates on why he trusts her instincts and touches on their business dynamic:
“Nicki is a mainstream artist and me, I’m more of an under[ground] artist. I got songs like I’m a Boss and Trillest. They classic and they big in the culture, but they’re not big on the radio as far as doing numbers. I got a special talent for doing that. She got a special talent of making mainstream songs so she was fighting me to have a mainstream song. You know me, I like that real shit. I like that grimy shit. I ain’t really worried about that. I don’t need no single on the radio to sell no album.”
Meek admits after arguing back and forth “she ends up winning” because “Nicki is a monster.” Even though his girlfriend’s net worth is roughly 10 times his, Meek still doesn’t let Nicki pick up the tab, aspires to get to her level and describes her as a “trophy” he likes to flaunt. But, while he values her opinion he does admit he doesn’t like Nicki at his recording sessions because he may want to “rap some shit bout some hoes.” Hoes make the (rap) world go ‘round.
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A Boss Colored In Feelings
“They be asking you for favors, they won’t even ask you if you ok.”-Meek Mill
The most somber moment of the CRWN event involved Meek detailing his prison routine which included reflecting on how stupid he was to be hanging out in the hood all night with expensive cars and jewelry. But, for a rapper who has more songs and Instagram photos about the great things money can buy than one can count, it’s starting to sound like fortune is becoming a disease that only affects those without it:
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“They don’t give a fuck if you dying. Do you got $5,000 I can borrow? I ain’t used to that. I came up with no money so I ain’t used to nobody treating me like that. I ain’t used to nobody asking for what I worked for all day. I ain’t used to that so when people say I changed or I’m acting different I’m like ‘you changed. You never used to ask me for no money. ”
Meek is drawn to the same past that tries to siphon from his present success. But with good reason that harkens back to his disdain for Hollywood.“We travel so much and we are around so much fake shit, sometimes you want to feel like the realness of the streets from the people who really got love for you.” Eating crabs and getting drunk, realer than any Hollywood restaurant.
The Transparent King
“A lot of artists come up here and say the best shit they can to make y’all feel good. I ain’t going to do that. This the Meek Mill CRWN.”
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The most apparent fact of the CRWN event was his fanbase not only loves him but knows him. Him merely mentioning his mother incites a “happy birthday to your mom” from the crowd. So it did not seem shocking when Meek began uttering statements that would be career suicide for a competitive rapper such as himself with a fairweather fanbase.Before admitting that Kendrick Lamar is “the best lyricist out now” he did something rappers rarely do: he admitted he got murdered on his own shit.
“On [A-1 Everything] I think Kendrick murdered me. I liked his verse better than mine. I like Nicki’s verse better than mine on “All Eyes On You.” I like a lot people’s verses better than mine. But, at the end of the day it’s my song. I came up with the idea. I put this together.”
Don’t worry, he told fans he’s going to earn his spot as the best lyricist and may even release another project before the year is out. The transparent king also let fans see into how him being like them is more of a guideline to how to approach him in public than marketing gimmick. How does he stop fans from incessantly asking for pictures without losing a fan with rudeness? He tells them “most celebrities, or rappers, or artists they won’t even come near you. Take the fact that we chilling and enjoy the moment and rock with it like regular people do.”
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Meek understands there’s a price to pay for transparency. He knows opening up fans to his recording process ties them to him leads to expectations being. Whatever happened to the original intro to Dreams Worth More Than Money featuring Lil Snupe? “It’s going to come on my next project,” Meek explains before later, “I didn’t want to try mimic the last intro and compete with myself.”
He’s the emcee rapping in pitch black darkness in a prison cell tightly packed with criminals battle rapping. He’s the man who talks about seven-year-old Myspace songs with the some fondness he does his biggest single, “I’m A Boss.” He’s the same celebrity who, when Elliott Wilson was ready to dap it up and wrap it up, extended his CRWN interview into an impromptu Q&A with his fans. Meek Mill is that emperor living in the transparent kingdom.
