Meek Mill

“I used to hear speculation: I’m not really keeping up in music,” Meek Mill told Apple music before the release of his fifth album, Expensive Pain, in 2021. “That’s why I’m trying to bring my best music and really showcase my talent for the people that really give me my credit.” Raised in North Philadelphia, Mill (born Robert Rihmeek Williams in 1987) got his start with local group The Bloodhoundz, honing his skills in the city’s vicious battle scene and turning out a string of solo mixtapes that eventually caught the interest of T.I.’s label, Grand Hustle. Sidelined by an arrest for gun and drug possession, and a seven-month prison sentence, Mill bounced back by signing to Rick Ross’ Maybach Music Group in 2011 and dropping his debut studio album Dreams and Nightmares (2012). Mill continued to release music throughout the 2010s, interrupted by stints in jail and house arrest, often for violating parole stemming from his initial 2007 arrest—a case that drew widespread interest from artists and activists, including an op-ed by JAŸ-Z in The New York Times. In 2018, it was discovered that Mill’s arresting officer might have mishandled the case, freeing Mill from jail and eventually—after a plea deal in 2019—bringing to a close a decade-long ordeal. Following his legal issues and 2021’s Expensive Pain, Mill teamed up with his former label head Ross for Too Good to Be True in 2023 and released a stream of singles in the following years. Through it all, Mill has established himself as a kind of throwback—a passionate ambassador of classic rap who pitched street stories with a feverish sense of drama: You knew he meant it not just because he said it, but because he yelled it.