-Welcome to the show.
-Thanks for having me.
-Yo, man, it has been
quite a journey. -Yeah.
I, like, I mean, for everybody
who's been watching your life
just in what feels
like the period of a year,
you've gone from someone
who was in prison
-looking at spending multiple
years behind bars -Yeah.
to being number one
on the Billboard charts
-and being free again.
-Yeah. Thank God.
(cheering and applause)
Are there mornings
where you wake up
still fearing the idea
of going back to jail?
Yeah, I wake up every day
fearing going back to jail.
I'm on bail. Uh...
I don't know if anybody know
what that mean. If, uh...
The Supreme Court
overturned my sentence
-and, uh, gave me a bail
-Right.
and gave me a chance
to actually refight the case.
I'm originally on probation.
I was put on probation
for a case
at, uh, the age of 18.
Falsely accused, and...
You know, where I come from,
like, the value of getting
arrested was just, like...
The way we valued ourself,
it was just, like,
a normal thing
if a cop blamed someone,
you took a deal
or you went to court
and you lost a case that...
for something you didn't do.
And as I got older,
I got around, like,
more powerful people
and-and met people
around the world
where people valued
theirself more.
And one day
I just asked my friend,
like, "Yo, you think I pointed
a gun at three or four cops?"
He white. And I was like,
"You think I pointed a gun
"at four or five cops
and got away with it
without a single shot
being fired?"
And he always used to say no,
but I don't think he understood
-what I was really saying
to him, so, you know. -Right.
I used to say it
all the time, man.
When I actually got sentenced
to the two to four years,
it stemmed back from when
I actually was found guilty
for a crime
that I did not commit.
I don't know if anybody watches,
like, social media,
what happens to young black men
when you even flash a gun.
You don't even have to point
a gun at a police officer
in America right now,
and, you know,
sometimes them situations
turn out tragic.
And, you know, uh...
as-as life went on in my cell,
you know,
I just told my friends,
like, "Yo, let's go look
at this case from the beginning.
-Let's go check into it."
-Right.
And we had investigators check
into this case top to bottom.
Most of the people
that even arrested me,
testified on me
were found guilty for lying,
uh, of a criminal activity.
And, actually, uh,
a bunch of people got let out
through the-the investigation--
investigating
these police officers.
It's interesting
that your-your case
and your story became,
in many ways,
what opened up a Pandora's box.
People talk about how America's
criminal justice system
-is broken.
-Yeah.
But now it had a face.
Meek Mill. Here he was.
He was successful.
He was selling albums.
He-- You know,
he was-- he was rich.
-He was doing well. But...
-Yeah.
even he became a victim
to the system.
Do-do you think that now,
without wanting it,
you-you've now taken on
that mantle of being an advocate
for criminal justice reform?
Yeah, I kind of think
it was placed on my lap.
It-it was--
Uh, the basis of it, like,
people used to say, like,
"Uh, it's not about him."
No, it's not about me.
It's actually about,
uh, I got found guilty at 18
for a crime I didn't do.
I'm 31 years old.
I never been back to prison
for crime ever again in my life.
And I was sentenced
to a two- to four-year sentence
at 31 years old
-when I'm, uh, at a successful
stage in my life. -Right.
So you got to imagine people
who grew up in bad environments
who get put on probation
probably for petty things
-and long-term probations, uh...
-Right.
And a lot-- a lot of people
don't realize that,
the probation, it basically
re-ups every single time.
-Yeah. -So you're-you're
basically in this world
where it's like--
this is your probation
but then something small
can happen.
You can have an altercation
with the cops
-where you didn't do something
wrong but the cops-- -Yeah.
and now you go--
now it's more and more and more.
And you-you're basically
permanently at-at risk
of going back to prison.
And in this album, I think
what-what's really powerful is--
-I mean, you-you've always made
music about your life. -Yeah.
But Championships is honestly
one of the most gripping albums
I've ever listened to,
because you talk
-about what it's like
to be behind bars. -Thank you.
And it's not funny.
It's not cool.
-No.
-It's-it's scary, man.
-Yeah. -You-you talk
about hearing the screams
-of people being raped
in prison. -Yeah.
You talk about, you know,
how prisoners are being treated
behind bars by the guards.
And, in many ways,
you remind people
that there are humans
on the other side of the bars.
-We-we always say "criminals,"
-Yeah.
but-but there are humans
suffering through this.
Like, does that stick with you
when you leave?
Uh, yeah. It was just a big deal
when I, uh--
I got sentenced
to a state sentence.
And, you know, uh,
a lot of them kids in there
were sentenced
to state sentence.
They took deals because
they didn't have lawyer money.
-Right. -And, like, you know,
uh, they got a thing--
a system called
public defenders.
If you can't afford
a private attorney,
uh, the state will assist you
with a-a public defender.
A public defender
would go over this case--
uh, over your case probably
in four or five minutes
and, you know,
take you in the courtroom.
-Right, right, right. -Had to be
your life. So most of the times,
uh, these kids are charged
with ten, 20 charges,
where they're facing
45 years, 30 years
for things that they
most likely didn't even do.
Um, they end up taking deals
for four or five years
or three years
with a bunch of parole
or probation.
And they'll forever be scarred.
You won't be able to get a job.
You won't be able
to attend certain schools.
Even me, myself, I tried
to move in certain areas,
just having, uh,
an embarrassing record
of a cop saying I pointed a gun
at, uh, uh, two police officers.
Uh, certain areas
I couldn't move in.
One time my bank account
was closed
because I had felonies
on my record,
and I'm moving so forward
in my life.
It just made me want
to stand up and speak for people
who, uh, are caught up
in the system
and maybe trying to move forward
in their lives, and...
(applause and cheering)
When you...
Just, like, a lot of people...
Some people, uh...
I heard people say like,
"He's not the face.
He shouldn't be the face."
I'm like, "Why?"
I don't want to be the face.
I just want to help out and help
bring change to the world. Uh...
-Which is amazing.
I think that's amazing. -Yeah.
-I-I like to rap, I like to
take care of my family. -Right.
-(applause)
-Uh...
Can I ask...
can I ask you a question?
I mean, Meek Mill,
for a lot of people, you know,
popped into their lives because
of a beef with Drake.
-Yeah.
-Right?
It was huge beef with Drake,
and there was back to back,
-and this was all going on.
-Yeah.
And then, Meek Mill gets
arrested, you go to prison.
You come out, and then,
you squash the beef with Drake.
And you guys genuinely
worked through it.
Not even like a PR thing.
-You worked through it
as human beings. -Yeah.
Well, when you go to prison,
does it feel like a rap beef
is just a waste of time?
Uh, yeah, basically.
The prison is...
I played Ping-Pong,
I played chess, uh...
(Noah laughs)
-Read some books.
-Right.
Yeah, it was nothing that
I could really benefit from.
I already had my path, uh,
where I was headed to.
You know, I employ people,
I'm employed myself.
-I do a lot of charity.
-Right.
So, you know, I wasn't really
getting into too many
of the, uh, programs
they had going on.
So, you know, I worked
on my Ping-Pong,
learned how to play chess.
Uh, chess taught me patience.
Uh, no. Yeah, it was a waste of
time, I feel like, definitely.
When you, uh... when you...
when you came out,
you immediately went
into this world of advocating
for the people
who spoke to you.
-People wrote you letters.
-Yeah.
Uh, you know,
fans who said to you,
"Hey, you've inspired me, not
from prison, but just in life."
-Yeah. -"You're inspired me
to get over obstacles."
And now you're fighting
for America to change its ways.
What would like to see changed
-in America's prison system?
-Uh...
Uh, probation and parole should
have, uh, standards to it.
Uh, me-- I've been on probation
from 18 years old.
I'm 31 years old.
I haven't been to jail since.
If I decided to cross the bridge
to go to New Jersey
without calling my probation
officer, with forgetting,
I could actually go to prison.
Or if I got pulled over
or got a traffic ticket,
police contact is a violation.
If I come in contact with
the police, and a judge decides
that she don't like the contact
that I came in with police...
It doesn't have
to involve a crime.
It doesn't have to...
You could be innocent.
Like, I got sentenced
to two to four years
for popping a wheelie.
I got arrested in, uh, New York
for popping a wheelie,
which, actually, they charged me
with an F1 felony.
When I went to court,
the case was thrown out.
I didn't even get a traffic
ticket for popping a wheelie.
-Right. -Uh, I still was sent
to jail for that.
You know what I'm saying?
It just...
Police contact on probation is,
uh, really, uh,
jail time, basically.
And for people that look like me
and come from the environments
I come from,
police contact happens
on a daily basis.
Uh, me-- I've probably been
searched by police
-5,000 times in my life, you
know what I'm saying? -Right.
And not speaking,
saying all cops are bad,
but I just think
that's a bad dynamic
to put people like me in.
Uh...
bail reform-- at one point
I was locked up with a guy
whose bail was
a hundred dollars.
He spent 28 months in prison.
'Cause he couldn't pay
a hundred dollars.
'Cause he couldn't
pay a hundred dollars.
And that was taxpayers' money.
Like, we had to pay for this guy
to be in jail for 28 months,
'cause he lorded two times
in his life.
Uh, he had a drug addiction.
I don't think that was
really the proper thing.
Uh, me being in prison, and...
I know a lot of people hear
about prison, they're thinking,
like, it's like the movies.
No, it's really like
a mental institution.
A lot of people are, uh, addicts
and went to prison
for probation violations
'cause they was addicted
to opioids, marijuana, cocaine,
-Right.
-and they're put in prisons.
Uh...
I think that them type of things
should be handled accordingly.
I think people that's... have
addictions should go to rehab.
You shouldn't go to a prison.
-People...
-(applause)
Uh...
I don't think, like, I don't
think people really realize
how deep it is.
Like, I used to read
comments on, when I came home,
on the Internet: "He broke
probation. Go to jail."
I'm like, "Yo, I wheely the
bike, I wheely the motorcycle."
I don't know if any of y'all
got kids that have dirt bikes.
I'm in love with dirt bikes.
That's what I like to do.
I wheely the dirt bike.
I went from wheelying
a dirt bike
to being just locked in a cell
23 hours a day
with shackles on my ankle,
on my wrist,
not able to be able
to contact my family,
and going through
traumatizing things,
and I'm just like, "Yo,
I'm not a threat to society."
And nobody that is
a threat to society
should be placed
in these type of conditions,
because everybody
don't make it back from that.
Like, I'm telling,
hearing men scream.
He probably won't never recover
from what happened to him
in that prison.
He probably was locked up for...
the smallest thing in the world.
And it's, like...
in America, we make it like
it's just a normal thing.
Some people belong
to be in jail.
We have dangerous people
and people who cause harm
and don't offer nothing
to society.
And you also have the 30%,
40% who are here
for technical violations
and violations
and not committing crime,
and people who took plea deals
'cause they couldn't afford
lawyers and things like that.
So, you know, there's
so many layers to it.
Me, I'm here in...
on shows like this
to really deliver my experience
of what I went through.
You know what I'm saying?
Because America can view me
as a normal person--
they know I have a job,
they know I'm
not committing crime.
And I'm delivering my message
just to the world,
so we can start
on a path of change.
Can I tell you, that's something
I found interesting is,
-you have an album out,
-Yeah.
and I've watched you go
on multiple shows,
and you don't seem to need
to speak about the album.
-You don't... you don't push it,
you don't... -Yeah.
I mean, and it's
an amazing album.
-It's at number one.
-Yeah, I feel like I'm hot.
-I think I'm hot...
-(laughter)
-(applause) -No, I mean,
I mean it's amazing to see.
It's amazing to see,
because, I mean,
many people would say,
"Hey, I mean,
"there's this criminal justice
thing, but at the same time
I got to make my money,"
but you-you're out there, and...
this... it's re...
it really is something
that's close to your heart,
and I, honestly, I admire that
about you as a human being,
because it-it's bigger
than money, it's bigger than
anything else that you're doing,
but at the same time, people
are still buying the music
-and they're buying the album.
-Yeah, I think they gonna
get around to that,
you know? Uh...
It's, uh, it's almost
nerve-racking
coming on a TV show trying
to explain your innocence,
trying to speak up
for voiceless people.
I have so many people
that I was locked up with
that are dedicated to me
speaking out,
-or trying to even get a voice
for people -Right.
to hear their cries
of their situation.
So you always know,
you do a TV interview,
it might be five, ten minutes,
15 minutes,
sometimes even two,
three minutes,
it's nerve-- it's nerve-racking
to even try
to think about
what I have to say
and-and to compensate the people
who don't have a voice
or even promote my album.
So, you know, I just try to
freestyle it.
And most of the time we end up
talking about justice reform,
so, you know, we'll take it.
I also want to to talk about
the album, though.
-I want to talk about the music.
-Yeah.
I want to talk about,
I want to talk about
the state of mind
Meek Mill gets into
when he gets back in the studio.
Where do you find your joy?
You know, you-you come
from this place
where your freedom is taken away
from you, something that--
the one thing that human beings
need more than anything,
their freedom,
it's taken away from you.
-You are reminded of how thin
that thread is. -Yeah.
But you still have to find
your joy,
because the album is-is not,
it's not only painful.
-There's-there's bangers,
as you say. -Yeah. Yeah.
People are dancing, you know?
There's still fun.
How do you-- how--
Where do you find that joy?
I never wrote a song in prison.
I was so depressed
and stressed out.
I couldn't find the time
to actually sit down
and make a rap, but I always
wanted to explain this
like, on platforms like this.
A lot of people hear rap music
and sometimes you hear people
talk about violence,
-drugs and things like that.
-Right.
We actually grew up in these
environments our whole lives.
I'm 31 years old.
From the age of one year old
to 22 years old, maybe,
until I got a record deal,
I grew up in a ruthless
environment.
A lot of people-- some people
grew up in love,
some people grew up in hate,
I grew up in, like,
the hate-survival area,
where we seen a lot of bad.
So now, uh, I still know people,
I have family members
who live in that.
And, you know,
we speak on things,
it's like a social forecaster.
And I just want to deliver
my message in a way
where all America can view
and-and see what we go through
coming from where I come from.
And, uh, I think I'm a good
representative,
'cause I changed my life around,
even growing up
in hate and survival mode.
And I speak on a lot of things.
Like, I talk about, uh, the
opioid addiction in my city,
where, like, most young guys
do Percocet.
And I talk about, uh,
guys getting caught up
and being influenced
by other guys
and going to jail
and losing their freedom
by making bad decisions.
And I also talk about
the fun side of my life,
actually having money,
making money and living,
'cause sometimes
that inspires people, too.
-Coming from where I come from,
-Right. Right.
-we never had anything.
-You got to remember.
The first person I seen
was Allen Iverson.
He was the first
African American I seen,
like, with a real nice car.
And where I was at,
nobody really had nothing.
And that inspired me
to be bigger in life,
so, you know, if you see me
on Instagram or something
and I'm flaunting it a little
bit, don't take it personal.
I'm just trying to inspire.
(applause)
Yo, man, I just want to say
thank you so much
-for coming on the show. -All
right. Thanks for having me.
-I like your show a lot, too,
man. -I appreciate everything
that you do, man.
Thank you so much.
 Championships is available now.
It is fire.
-Meek Mill, everybody.
-And justice reform, too.
