Complex's

Complex News

Meek Mill Speaks Out From Prison

What’s up, guys? Frazier here for Complex News. /// The maddening injustices at the heart of Meek Mill’s ongoing case are explored in extensive detail in a new investigative piece for Rolling Stone. Published Wednesday by Paul Solotaroff, the article includes comments from Meek himself as he looks toward freedom. Some of Meek’s words are downright depressing, like how he noted that he only lets his legal team and a few friends visit him in prison. [QUOTE CARD: Meek Mill via Rolling Stone] "I won't let [my family] come. If they see me like this—f*cked-up beard, hair all ganked—then it's like I'm really in here. Which I'm not." Following Meek's widely contested sentence at the hands of Judge Genece Brinkley, multiple reports have flooded in accusing her of questionable tactics. In this latest feature, Brinkley is said to have committed "acts unbefitting her office," dating back at least 15 years. A Philadelphia area attorney, speaking anonymously, called Brinkley a "sadist" with a pattern of sending young black men to jail for trivial reasons after already hitting them with excessive probations. The piece also details lawsuits involving Brinkley and the tenants of properties that she rented out that paint a pretty heartless, if not outright corrupt, picture of the judge. The stories range from coldly kicking out a man who’d just lost his infant child after he couldn’t afford the very steep hike in rent she instituted, to allegations of witness tampering and intimidation. Apparently, a meeting the judge held with Meek and Nicki Minaj while they were still coupled up saw her not-so-jokingly suggest a collaboration idea for them to remix Boyz II Men’s “On Bended Knee.” [QUOTE CARD: Meek Mill via Rolling Stone] “F*cking Nicki busts out laughing, but I grabbed her leg, going, 'Yo, this is my life here.’ I tried to tell the judge, 'All respect, but that ain't me. I'm a Philly street rapper, not a bubblegum dude.' She says, 'Fine, then,' in a real sarcastic way. 'Suit yourself.'" The piece also goes back to the arrest that sent Meek down this path in the first place, and the ways in which false testimonies from corrupt cops and Meek’s family’s inability to afford a good legal defense team tragically put him on a course to be in this nightmare of a situation. All in all, it sounds like Meek is trying to stay optimistic in the face of everything, while his dedicated team of lawyers and managers fight for him on the outside. Once this ordeal is hopefully resolved, Meek plans to address these injustices directly. "I want to speak on this system and what it does to black people. On both f*cking sides of the fence," he says.  He also plans to get the hell out of Philly and hopefully settle down in Atlanta. Hopefully those goals come to fruition sooner rather than later. That’s all the news for now. For more updates on Meek keep it locked to Complex on YouTube. For Complex News, I’m Frazier.