Chase Gray

Mr. Dunham

CCP English 1201

January 28 2021

Summary of Nitsuh Abebe’s response to Meek Mill’s “Trauma”

In Nitsuh Abebe’s response to Meek Mill’s song, he talks about the struggles the rising

star went through with the influence of drugs and violence at the time. Though there were many

different reactions, nobody actually took the time to listen to the lyrics Meek Mill is actually

speaking about until this song was released. Most of his songs are about the police system and

the early lives of black children in big cities.

In Meek Mill’s most influential songs, he creates his lyrics about the struggles of his early

life. As he was beginning to rise to stardom, he also had a few entanglements with the

authorities. Even though there were very strong influences of guns and drugs in the Philadelphia

he grew up in, he made his disgust in the failing prison system very known. He would end up

spending most of his career in and out of prison sentences. He mentions that there are 18 and

19 year olds going to jail, being taught by rapists and life sentence killers. There were sections

about discrimination, poverty, and crime which attributed to the failing of youth coming from

these lower income communities in the larger cities in the United States. In the interview, we

learned that Mill was actually a big reader, partly because he was grounded all the time, but he

became obsessed with black history in high school. There was a segment that went through his

arrests, the first being in sixth or seventh grade after going to school while suspended. He said

this was one of the many arrests and charges that would end up leading him spiraling into a life

in and out of prison, which happens to many other people. The main point of his music is to

expose the imperfections of society in the United States. He uses his lyrics to explain all the

hardships young people are going through every day and to gain attention to the real issues in

the United States.