Meek Mill's progress is amazing. When you listen to his first few projects, his street introspection is present but unpolished. After his experiences with an incompetent judge and a corrupt law enforcement system, Meek has grown to articulate street injustice more powerfully. His mission to raise awareness, quell violence, teach the youth, and scare the corrupt can be heard throughout Championships. It's as if the law awoken a sleeping giant with Meek, not realizing that he was the wrong rapper to tie up in a judicial scandal. While some men may roll over and face their fate, Meek made it his mission to expose the system around him rather than give up. That's how champions handle things.
Combing through Meek's album for the most woke bars wasn't hard. In fact, it was the opposite. Championships is packed with so much relevant, informative, and illuminating content that it needs to be dissected a hundred times over. We had to take entire chunks of verses instead of singular bars, because the messages intertwined were too integral to split up the bars. Jay-Z's verse on "What's Free" could school the entire world by itself. It's no wonder vets like T.I. and Jay-Z choose to stand behind Meek. He's a street poet, a rap scholar, an influential lyricist, and a problem for the system. Sit back, soak up some game, and dive into the 10 most woke bars on Championships.
You can stream Championships on Spotify below.
"Trauma"
"They told Kaep' stand up if you wanna play for a team
And all his teammates ain't saying a thing (Stay woke)
If you don't stand for nothing, you gon' fall for something
And in the 60's, if you kneeled, you'd prolly be killed
But they don't kill you now, they just take you out of your deal"
"What's Free"
"They gave us pork and pig intestines
Shit you discarded that we ingested, we made the project a wave
You came back, reinvested and gentrified it
Took niggas' sense of pride, now how that's free?
And them people stole the soul and hit niggas with 360s, huh
I ain't got a billion streams, got a billion dollars
Inflating numbers like we 'posed to be happy about this
We was praisin' Billboard, but we were young
Now I look at Billboard like, "Is you dumb?"
To this day, Grandma 'fraid what I might say
They gon' have to kill me, Grandmama, I'm not they slave" -Jay-Z
"What's Free"
"When you bring my name up to the judge, just tell him facts
Tell him how we fundin' all these kids to go to college
Tell him how we ceasin' all these wars, stoppin' violence
Tryna fix the system and the way that they designed it
I think they want me silenced (Shush)
Oh, say you can see, I don't feel like I'm free
Locked down in my cell, shackled from ankle to feet
Judge bangin' that gavel, turned me to slave from a king
Another day in the bing, I gotta hang from a string
Just for poppin' a wheelie, my people march through the city
From a cell to a chopper, view from the top of the city"
"Respect The Game"
"I seen my man girl start actin' bougie when he fuck up his cheddar
Before you knew it, niggas was fuckin' her better
I knew about it and I-
Wanted to tell him, I felt funny as ever
But when I told him, he went runnin' to tell her, damn
Remember I was down bad, I'm talkin' under the cellar
Now the Rolls Royces come with umbrellas
For the rain and all the pain that we been through
If you don't feed your wolves they gon' put you on the menu
That's why I be with family and some bulls that I been knew
If money determined loyalty, we'd cut you with a Ginsu
Now I go against you, facts"
"Championships"
"All the young'uns in my hood popping percs now
Gettin' high to get by, it's gettin' worse now
You gotta tell 'em put them guns and the percs down
Them new jails got ten yards in 'em and that's your first down, uh"
"Championships"
"Knowin' the niggas smoke my daddy it just made me upset
Made me a man shit I was five when God gave me my test
Go to court with a court appointed and he won't say he objects
Now it's you against the state and you ain't got no cake
Jail overpopulated they ain't got no space
I know a young'un that got murked ain't get to drive no Wraith
But he in the hearse on the way to church, I know his mom gon' faint
When she smell like embalming fluid, cologne all on her baby
Pastor said he sendin' you home, she goin' crazy"
"Oodles O Noodles Babies"
"Killed my lil' cousin, I’m like, "Damn it, man"
Had to see the footage on a camera, man
On the pavement, with his brains out
With the white sheet, he was laid out
Wanna ask 'Ye, "Is this a choice?"
It was like this when I came out
What the fuck is you really complaining 'bout?
I know niggas that's never gon’ make it out
This that shit you won't see in the media
Poor get poorer and the rich gettin' greedier
Lot of daddies goin' back and forth out of jail
Lot of sons growin' up and repeating them"
"Oodles O Noodles Babies"
"When I went to court, the judge said, "Meek, you a menace to society"
Huh, you said, you would give me a chance, your honor, why would you lie to me?
16 more years of probation, you know you gon' get some more time on me, huh
Whole hood goin' crazy, babies havin' babies
She was fourteen, actin' like she eighty
Got pregnant by a nigga that was locked up in them cages
And the story goes on, if you make it, you amazing"
"100 Summers"
"I got homies that died young and I miss 'em, tell the truth
I feel like I let 'em down and that's word to Lil Snupe
I put diamonds in yo face so when they see me they see you
Know they'd kill me in my hood, but I just keep on comin' through
Still wit' it, the graveyard throwing a party for all the real niggas
They invited me, but shit I got a meal ticket
When everybody want me to get out we gotta deal wit' it"
"Cold Hearted II"
"2012, it was 50 niggas when I'm steppin' out
Forgot the time you asked me for a check and I ain't lend it out
I ain't even know you was upset, that's what this shit about?
A green piece of paper can turn you to a hater
When you can't bring up one time you returned me for a favor
So I pray these niggas real close, talkin' closer than my neighbors
'Cause I know the signs when niggas switch sides, catch them vapors"