Summary Of “25 Songs That Matter Right Now” Page1 Lewis

Interview Summary

The New York Times Magazine released an issue on March 7, 2019 and in it is an
interview titled "He's been rapping about it for years. Now a lot more people are
listening" where Nikole Hannah-Jones interviews Meek Mill about his journey with
music and being involved with the criminal justice system.
 
In a short time frame Mill went from solitary confinement in prison to having an
album debuted at number one on the Billboard chart. He has had a love for music
since his teenage years at the same time he was finding himself catching charges
and in and out of courts for noncriminal violations. At just 21 years of age he was
sent to prison and when released was on years of probation.
 
In 2018, there was controversy involving the judge overseeing Mill's probation.
Mill's always maintained his stance that the police involved in his arrest made up
the charges and this gained a lot of attention from powerful people. Mill's
"Championships" album tour sold out around that time and he became a voice with
a platform to bring awareness to the failings of the criminal-justice system. He
made public appearances and wrote an op-ed for The New York Times and
ultimately helped start the Reform Alliance.
 
The "Championships" song had lyrics that about beating the streets, beating
racism, and beating poverty and this also stood put to may once he got his
platform. Nikole and Mills discuss the study called "The Philadelphia Negro" as he
read it in prison. Nikole mentions to him that the study is known as the first
sociological study of black Americans in the country. She relates this study that
was about 120 years ago to the same situations that Mill's talks about such as
poverty, crime, illiteracy and white discrimination. Mill's describes these things in
the interview as traumatizing and that they need talked about.
 
Mill's goes on to talk about his childhood and how his grades started to decline
once he moved to a rougher neighborhood, the one he ended up growing up in. He
describes the schools there as public schools and the teachers would make
comments like, "you'll probably end up dead or in jail" or "you'll probably be a
failure". He explains that his mom would tell him he is a great person and then
would have to go to school and listen to comments like that and that deterred him
from listening to his teachers at all. He was eventually put in disciplinary schools
and describes it as like a jail. He had to be strip searched and fingerprinted
everyday there.  His textbooks were falling apart and there was no black
literature available.
 
Once Mill's went to jail he already knew everyone because they were the same
people that were in the disciplinary school with him. He began to lose self-value
and respect there because he was getting used to not being valued. He describes
his motivation to do better and shoot for the top as low because his mother ended
up on drugs and how his lifestyle was. He talks about reading a lot as a child
because he was grounded a lot and then once in high school he had access to
Summary Of “25 Songs That Matter Right Now” Page1 Lewis

black literature and he finally felt like his life and the world was making sense to
him. He found calming feeling in reading history. In prison he read and that's how
he learned the system, which he compares to slavery. Mill's described the prison
as people being locked in the basement for 23 hours a day being beat by officers,
feeding people things you wouldn't feed to slaves, and people working for 8 cents
an hour. With the reading he had done in prison he learned that the 13th
amendment says that if you are in custody of the government that you can be
treated like a slave.
 
Mill's first arrest was while he was in middle school and on his way to school. He
was suspended but did not want to tell his mom so he would go to school to hang
out in the hallway and he was arrested for trespassing. He is currently on
probation for selling crack but swears he was not. He admits to selling weed to
get him a lawyer because anyone who only had a public defender got torn apart by
the system. He talks about his mugshot for this charge and how face is was
swollen in it. He goes on to say he was charged with fracturing the cop’s hand who
arrested him and how he got charged for the cop punching his face.
 
In one of Mill's hearings the judge told him that he doesn't give people 3 to 6
months, he gives them 3 to 6 years and this was for something like selling weed.
In the interview he mentions how that has stuck with him. Mill's describes kids as
young as 18 being sent to prison for something so minor and being locked away for
years with people who have murdered people, people who have raped people and
expect them to live with these people all for a little charge of maybe selling some
weed. Once out on probation one of the conditions would be no driving and he
expressed how that makes no sense that you can hang out with murderers all day
in prison but can't drive to be around a positive influence, such a family member
once you are out. Mill's said that one of his probation conditions once was that he
couldn't even rap.
 
In prison while being locked in a cell for 23 hours a day, Mill's said he started to
write what he was feeling and later when he went back to it he realized it didn't
make sense and he was spelling words wrong that he knew how to spell. He was
beginning to lose his mind and this wasn't a problem to the system. He was in this
lock down 23 hours a day because he was a celebrity and they didn't have
anywhere to put him. He talked about every time he got out he lost himself a little
more. This is when he realized he needed to advocate and quickly gained support
from powerful people pushing him even more. He is now working with Jay Z,
Michael Rubin and a couple others on the Reform Alliance. He mentions how they
are all billionaires except him. When asked if he believes the Reform Alliance can
actually change the system he is motivated and says that there is a possibility and
that there is talk right now about changing the probation system in Pennsylvania
and capping it at 5 years. Mill's believes this is an important change and would
benefit the younger generation entering the system because they would of
probably got 10 to 20.
 
At the conclusion of the interview Mill's is asked if he is hopeful and he states,
"Hell yea, I got a team with me. I don't think none of us lose in anything we do".
Summary Of “25 Songs That Matter Right Now” Page1 Lewis

WORK CITED

INTERVIEW BY NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/03/07/magazine/top-songs.html#/meek-mill