Meek Mill doesn't let his family visit him in prison. ""I won't let them come," he explains, during a new interview with Rolling Stone. "If they see me like this – fucked-up beard, hair all ganked – then it's like I'm really in here. Which I'm not."
The Philadelphia rapper's imprisonment is a reminder of the harsh injustices doled out as a result of the American justice system. It's no wonder he's chosen to go away inside. After being hit with four years for parole violations, Meek remains determined to stay strong, lest he let "[that woman] win." That woman (though the brackets suggest Meek opted for another, less flattering description) is Judge Genece Brinkley, who has been at the center of Meek's controversial legal drama. The extent of it is touched on throughout the piece, and an unnamed lawyer went so far as to describe the Judge as "a sadist," who "puts long-tail probations on young black men, then jerks them back to jail for small infractions."
During the interview, Meek doesn't exactly seem eager to talk. He speaks infrequently, reflecting on his early days growing up in Philadelphia. "I had 10 friends die when I lived in North Philly, and probably another six or seven on the South side," he says. "I would literally open the door and smell the air outside. Yup, smells like murder today."
It's not an idyllic landscape, nor is Meek's current predicament. Yet the rapper seems intent on coming out of this with a renewed set of purpose. Near the conclusion, Meek looks to the future, where he feels a responsibility to speak out against the system that wrong him. "there's brothers locked down that did nothing to be here but piss off people like Brinkley," he states. "I want to speak on this system and what it does to black people – on both fucking sides of the fence." He hasn't forgotten that Brinkley and many of the police and probation officers also happened to be black - "straight self-hate, man, it makes these people crazy. Trust me, I'm gonna say something about that. And then, I'm gonna move to Atlanta."
For more from Meek, as well as a detailed breakdown of the controversial nature of his trial, check out the full piece here.