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Meek Mill is pouring his heart out about the criminal justice system, squashing his beef with Drake and more right before announcing his upcoming Motivation Tour. Meanwhile, Kanye West and Kim Kardashian West are being dragged for doing the most. Everything inside...
Every since Meek Mill was released from prison in April 2018, he has become the poster child for criminal justice reform. And he has been on mission to speak out on the dysfunctional and discriminatory rules that leave people of color imprisoned for crimes they didn't even commit.
The "Dreams & Nightmare" rapper penned an op-ed for the New York Times advocating criminal justice reform.
"Like many who are currently incarcerated, I was the victim of a miscarriage of justice — carried out by an untruthful officer, as determined by the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office, and an unfair judge," he shared in the piece.
The multi-platinum artist continued:
But I know I’m the exception to the rule — a lucky one. It’s clearer than ever that a disproportionate number of men and women of color are treated unfairly by a broken criminal justice system. The system causes a vicious cycle, feeding upon itself — sons and daughters grow up with their parents in and out of prison, and then become far more likely to become tied up in the arrest-jail-probation cycle. This is bad for families and our society as a whole.
We all need to hold our lawmakers accountable for supporting unfair or inhumane policies and all practices that perpetuate injustice, especially for the blacks and Latinos who fall prey to them most frequently. The reality is African-Americans and Latinos who come from poverty-stricken neighborhoods are assigned public defenders too overburdened to do anything in most cases other than negotiate the most favorable plea deal, regardless of guilt or innocence.
Read his full opinion piece here.
Vulture magazine caught up with the MMG rapper and picked his brain about how he and Drake started beefing and how they ended up squashing it. Meek said he was high when he first popped off about Drizzy on Twitter.
“I was just out of control at that point in my life. Getting high and doing whatever I wanted how I wanted to do it. In front of the world, not behind the scenes,” he says. (Mill recently revealed his past opioid addiction.) “I don’t know his writing situation or how he really carried it. I just jumped out of anger and what I thought was the truth at the time.”
What fans didn't know is that Meek and Drake have BEEN cool. They were communicating before they made up publicly on stage during Drizzy's "Aubrey & The Three Amigos" show in Boston's TD Garden.
“Me and Drake have actually been communicating for the last year. Even before I went to prison. It was based on the right time. We ain’t have nothing going on but a rap beef, we didn’t cause harm to each other,” Mill says now. “I think it took both of us going through some ups and downs, me in my career. It made me stronger. I’m moving off love right now, so it was only proper to link with someone I actually did business with before and called my friend before.” He adds of the potential for future collaborations with Drake: “I think that’s possible. What we did was genuine. We didn’t just do it for the love of the people ‘cause we could’ve been done that. We waited until we were ready and did that.”
While the rapper has been vocal about encouraging people to vote and endorsing certain politicians, he himself has still never voted. He's actually eligible to vote, he just hadn't checked to see.
“I don’t think I’m even able to vote. I’ve been on probation so long, my whole adult life, that voting wasn’t even an option,” he says. (He was eligible, per a state rule change enforced in 2000.) “Never voted in my life. I’ve been a felon my whole life.” Instead, he endorsed incumbent Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf, Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, and Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum on social media, and supported Florida’s Amendment 4, which restored voting rights to felons.
"To tell you the truth, I hope we have straightforward people, people with dignity, in office that can help make a better change for America. But I’m so used to seeing the other thing. Politics — I never even gave a fuck, really. It’s hard to even try to care now because I lost so much faith in seeing change that it’s not even realistic.” He adds, “Me being let out on bail was the first time anything went in my favor in this court system of Pennsylvania — ever. It was a good feeling for that day, but it was still … I had a lot of people paying attention to my case. I just came out lucky. The person who don’t have attention on their cases like me wouldn’t come out the same way.”
Hmm...he definitely needs to tighten up here. He should be registered to vote and actually voting in an election if he's going to be preaching to others to do the same. His team could have easily dne their job and checked to see if he was eligible, something Vulture themselves did. Every vote counts, no matter how jaded you are abou tthe system. You can lay out all these ideas for change, but they don't magically get put into action by themselves. Elected officials do that.
Meek, who was just cast to star in Jada Pinkett Smith's 12 O’Clock Boys, will be dropping his new album, Championships, on November 30th. The LP features Cardi B, Ella Mai, Fabolous, Kodak Black, and Anuel AA.
The Philly native will be heading out for his first tour since his release from prison earlier this year. He'll be hitting 16 cities on his "Motivation Tour," set to kick off on February 19th in Miami and will wrap up on March 24th in Atlanta. TIDAL subscribers can cop tickets now. They'll go on sale to the public on his album release date, November 30th.
Below are the tour dates:
February 19 – Miami, FL - The Fillmore
February 22 – Dallas, TX - South Side Ballroom
February 23 – Houston, TX - Revention Music Center
February 26 – Phoenix, AZ - Comerica Theatre
February 28 – Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Palladium
March 1 – San Francisco, CA - The Masonic
March 5 – Denver, CO - Fillmore Auditorium
March 8 – Chicago, IL - Aragon Ballroom
March 9 – Detroit, MI - The Fox Theatre
March 12 – New York, NY - Hammerstein Ballroom
March 15 – Philadelphia, PA - The MET
March 19 – Hartford, CT - XFINITY Theatre
March 20 – Lowell, MA - Tsongas Center
March 21 – Washington, DC - The Anthem
March 23 – Raleigh, NC - The Ritz
March 24 – Atlanta, GA - Coca-Cola Roxy
Get those coins, Meek. And put some toward voter education.
In other news...
The Wests have social media in an uproar after doing the most.
Kim K posted a video of her and Kanye West hopping on a private Boeing 747, a commercial aircraft that can hold between 400-660 people.
“No big deal. Just taking a private 747,” Kim said as she and Ye walked to board the flight.
It doesn't help that there are constant reports detailing how rising tempertaures will negatively affect the environment.
Peep the clips above and below:
Folks definitely called her out on her wasteful carbon footprint and more. Check it:
Where are the lies in these tweets? Sure, they aren't the first or last celebs to take a private jet. But this style & size of private jet is on a WHOLE other level...
Photos: Mamadi Doumbouya via VULTURE
