Champion-ships :Meek Mill Album Review
This review originally appeared in CLASH Magazine
It would likely be an understatement to say that Meek Mill has had a tumultuous few years. Beginning with a rap beef with arguably the biggest artist in the world in Drake, it all stemmed from the fact that the OVO top dog failed to share his second album “Dreams Worth More Than Money” on social media, as well as the accusation that he used a ghostwriter for their collaboration on the album track “R.I.C.O”. This led to the Philadelphia native being the recipient of two scathing diss tracks which left the internet in a frenzy and in no doubt of who the loser was.
“Shit we was kids used to play on the step/ A couple years later we flirtin’ with the angel of death/ I was eleven years old when I got my hands on a tec”
He then later suffered a bitter break up with then-girlfriend and friend of Drake’s, Nicki Minaj, before most recently getting a jail sentence of 2-4 years for violating his probation (of which he had been on for ten years) for popping a wheelie in New York. With support from fans and across the rap community with public figures such as Jay Z and Kevin Hart voicing their support of the injustice, Meek was released five months later pending the outcome of an appeal to the Pennsylvania supreme court, and just seven months later has delivered a new album.
On Championships, his fourth studio album, Meek Mill raps with the same, hunger, passion and drive that he came into the game with -and that has earned him veteran status at MMG as the right hand lieutenant to Rick Ross – but now with a renewed sense of purpose and direction. On songs like “Trauma” and “Championships” he tells the street tales that his core audience has been built around but manages to balance those tracks with songs for his wider audience such as introspective cuts for the ladies (“24/7”, “Almost Slipped”) , crowd-pleasing anthems for his latin fanbase (“Uptown Vibes”), and even goes into full-on trap mode for his reunion with Drake on “Going Bad”, all the while showing growth and maturity as he talks about the system, and how it affected him, people like him, his family and how it continues to disadvantage the majority. He details his experience as a black man in America fighting against a system designed for him to fail. This message is probably best highlighted in the Jay-Z and Rick Ross-assisted “What’s Free?” which includes a standout verse from Jay-Z, and uses the same sample as The Notorious B.I.G’s “What’s Beef?” (one of many major samples on the album).
“They shot that boy 20 times when they could’ve told him just freeze/ Could’ve put him in a cop car, but they let him just bleed”
Meek clearly has a lot to say with the album coming in at 18-tracks and with a host of features including Ella Mai, Kodak Black, Cardi B and more, leaving the album feeling a little bloated. But after having to “beat the streets, beat the system, beat racism, beat poverty”, Meek Mill has definitely earned his place at the Championships, has undoubtedly become the people’s champion, and in turn has provided his best album to date.