Meek Mill and Drake has since bury their beef but it’s clear that feud was taxing for both artists.
It’s been three years that hip-hop fans have been waiting for Meek Mill to drop an album. Their patience was rewarded with the release of Expensive Pain, today, October 1. Soon after its release, the rapper took the opportunity to break down his thoughts about the album with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe.
Besides the album, Meek Mill also revealed his thoughts on his now-infamous beef with Drake back in 2015. The two started feuding after the Philly rapper accused Drake of using a ghostwriter on their collaboration “R.I.C.O.” As it goes when rappers beef, a series of diss tracks were released from both artists. In September 2019, the pair ended their quarrel after Meek Mill joined the Toronto star onstage in Boston.
Meek recalled that 2019 was an extremely challenging year for him, especially since he and Drake were going at it.
“I was at a disadvantage. He was winning, in the eyes of the people. I still walked my way through that, went through prison, I had to go through something. Once I bounced back out, Championships,” he said.
Meek Mill also admitted that times are still challenging since the onset of the pandemic. The “Going Bad” rapper said that in spite of the circumstances, he believes that his latest album is some of his best work, and he stands by it.
“I’m going to stand on my talent, and I’m going to remain confident and hope that people pay attention to what’s going on because they got a long way to go. I’m trying to keep pushing,” he added.
The Philly rhymer continued on to say that Expensive Pain is one of his favorite albums right now because he took the chance to really express himself. Meek revealed that the title came from his in-studio experience with Lil Uzi Vert and Brent Faiyaz. Both artists have features on the album.
“I actually said expensive pain on a song with Uzi when we was in a booth rapping. I said, ‘You ain’t rich, your stash can’t pay my drug bill.’ Basically we smoke a lot of weed and stuff like that, and I was playing it for Brent Faiyaz one day in the studio, he heard me say that, he was like, ‘That bar hot.’ He was like, ‘That’s a fire word, expensive pain.’ He was like, ‘That should be an album title.’ And I start thinking about it and then I stuck with it,” he added.
The rapper also spoke about how rap mogul Jay-Z influenced his thinking as both a businessman and an artist. Meek is currently managed by Roc Nation. He explained how much The Blueprint influenced his thought process because of how important music was to him and others growing up. Something he believes was also influenced by the fact that he had no father around to teach him.
“We were young, we ain’t really know about the level of stuff JAY-Z was talking about, but when I got older, I got The Blueprint, I was rapping, I was making music. So that was the beginning of me falling in love with how JAY move and how he handle business,” he revealed.
What continues to impress the “All Eyes on You” rapper is the fact that Jay Z is always finding ways to give back to the black community. He also shared that sometimes he texts Jay-Z to let him know how appreciative he is of the job that he is doing for young blacks.
“Sometimes I even text him and be like, ‘Yo, you’re making a faster lane for all of us. I want you to know that,’ because that’s a big deal when you break barriers like the ones he break,” he said.
For Meek to be truly successful, he also wants to have a good relationship with his sons and not repeat the mistakes of his father. One of them is 10-years-old, while the other is just a year old.
The next step for the rapper is to perform the entire new album at his upcoming “Expensive Pain: Meek Mill & Friends” playback concert on October 23 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
