The raw power of Meek Mill's Phil Collins-assisted "Intro" comes to life in the CHAMPIONSHIPS opener's new video.
Up top, catch the new (and noticeably Phil-less) Kid Art-directed video. Cartier Brown and Jonathan Olson are credited as executive producer and producer, respectively. Meek previously released a video for fellow CHAMPIONSHIPS cut "Uptown Vibes" featuring Fabolous and Anuel AA.
As Dallas Martin, Atlantic's senior VP of A&R, explained in an extensive interview with Complex last week, the new Meek album was a "down to the wire" affair. "The main thing with him when he got out, I wanted him to be able to link with all the biggest producers in the game," Martin told Eric Diep. "We went down to Atlanta and for like two weeks I just had all the big producers come through and sit with him, play beats, and just let him just rock out."
As for the name, Martin said it's again the result of a feeling both he and Meek had during the sessions. It's also, of course, a nod to a previous Meek title. "You know everything we went through from the past three years," Martin said. "Just the ups and downs. So, we felt like he was in a great space. I felt like he got a second chance at life, and we really felt like we was in championship mode."
The album was briefly the source of some apparently misguided lyrical interpretations, as JAY-Z stepped in for a rare tweet to clarify his line on "What's Free" about Kanye West:
