Meek Mill says after doing “20-something months” in jail he put his life into rapping.
With Meek Mill‘s album, Dreams & Nightmares, out now, and movingimpressive units, the Philly native is riding high on a wave of success. However, as Meek tells MTV News for an upcoming ‘How I Made It’ episode, it wasn’t always so easy for him.
The MMG rapper spent time in jail when he was 18 years old, and he recently opened up about the lessons he learned there.
He detailed his time in jail, saying, “I was 18, just turned [into] an adult when I went to jail.” He explained his case, “I caught a case and had 57 charges. Young guys that get caught with a gun — they’re gonna automatically charge you up. All I did was walk outside with a gun.”
Although he didn’t spend too long in jail, he learned from the experience nonetheless.
“In jail you ain’t got nothing to do but sit in there and think all day,” he said. “I just [didn’t] wanna die, I [didn’t] wanna get shot or get life in jail because that’s the usual script. I ended up going about 20-something months and realized that wasn’t the place I wanted to be.”
Jail was a wake-up call for Meek to get his life on track, and rapping was the result. “I really put my life into rapping,” he explained. “They let me out on house arrest and the judge gave me permission to go to the studio, and that taught me another lesson because every day [I was] going straight to the studio for 12 hours straight and I started putting up six songs a day for three months straight — that’s what gave me my little jump start.”
