Following the release of his fifth studio album Expensive Pain, Meek Mill stopped by the Million Dollaz Worth of Game podcast for an extensive interview.
In the two-hour long chat, Meek spoke about putting his family first, how Instagram has changed the way relationships work, and his stance on recreational drug use. He also briefly touched on going up against the parole board when he spent time behind bars, what it was like to have Michael Rubin and Kevin Hart visit his jail block, and the murder rate in Philadelphia.
One of his lengthiest interviews in quite some time, Meek’s chat on the podcast arrives after the release of his Expensive Pain album. Featuring appearances from Kehlani, ASAP Ferg, Giggs, Young Thug, and Moneybagg Yo among others, the record is on track for an impressive debut week. Even Drake, with whom Mill famously beefed before making amends, offered congratulations on the album’s release. “Proud of u boy,” wrote Drizzy.
Watch the full podcast episode above, and check out a breakdown of some of the most notable moments below.
Time stamp: 14:50
Early on, Meek was asked to expand on his thoughts about how Instagram has impacted relationships. “Social media play a big part into it, too,” Mill explained when asked if IG changed the way relationships work. He suggested social media can act as a sort of echo chamber, with users receiving lots of supportive comments regardless of what’s happening in their lives.
Meek also thinks it can be jarring to see someone flaunting their relationship on the timeline. “You could have a girlfriend, and y’all can actually be living good all the time…I know a n***a, he did everything for a girl, whatever you can think. Trips, flowers, cook. … He got hit with that stick,” he said. “What the hell does she think, did she really think the new n***a that she fuck with give a fuck? Or do she think the guy that was there all this time really give a fuck. … I don’t know their personal business or what type of mistakes he made, but still, we seeing that in public. And the next thing we seeing in public is you with another n***a.”
Meek indicated that he wasn’t on board with seeing his exes on Instagram, or very public break-ups on the platform.
“In the real world of building yourself up and living in peace—I ain’t trying to live like that. I ain’t trying to put my shit all on the line in a world where anybody can fucking DM your girl,” he said. “You arguing with your lady, and you ain’t speaking for three, four days, she done caught 90 DMs and she opened them. Usually 90 n***as can’t really send my girl a text message before Instagram and all that, couldn’t just contact my lady or…I don’t even think my lady should be accessible to the world like that. If you wanted to DM Beyoncé, you can’t DM Beyoncé, you know that.”
As for his own DM skills, he called himself “effective.”
Time stamp: 25:00
Meek opened up about his stance on taking pills for recreational use, and said he has a zero tolerance policy when it comes opiates and similar drugs.
“If you take percs right now, you an asshole,” Mill said, highlighting that a lot of these drugs have been laced with fentanyl. “You could die off of just trying to get high, kill half your brain cells in your mind just by trying to get high. … Nine times out of 10, when you get a percocet off the street it’s probably gonna be a hit-up perc. They got tests on the Instagram, ain’t trying to do all that to get high, man.”
He spoke briefly about his own experiences with drugs. “I ain’t no ‘get high n***a.’ I did percs before in my life, got addicted. ... I been on percs before fentanyl came out,” he explained. “It was always an open if I wanted to do it, I’d just do it on my own. Now that shit is a zero tolerance. Never touch, I don’t give a fuck about getting high, I’m not gonna risk my life to get high.”
Last year a rumor circulated that Meek had been using pills because he was looking skinnier. Meek maintains that his stomach was “messed up for 18 months straight.” He still smokes recreational marijuana and drinks alcohol on occasion, but said he mostly prefers to stay sober these days, especially when working.
“I’m halfway slow when I’m off the weed, but I rap good,” he added, noting he’s often paranoid when he smokes.
Time stamp: 58:00
Later on, he explained why he doesn’t want to stay in “the hood” of Philadelphia, and spoke about an experience of coming across kids on the street equipped with dangerous guns. “You can’t be coming around me if you robbing n***as, if you selling fentanyl,” Meek explained. “We know how to make money off of hats, we sell t-shirts. … We graduate.”
He recalled being on FaceTime with one of his friends who showed him a group of kids apparently decked out with modified firearms. “All them n***as had ghost guns on them. I said, ‘Ask them how much money they got in their pocket total,’” Mill said. “Out of four of them they had like $45, they all had extendos on them. Dangerous shit, I gave them $500, it was Mother’s Day. ‘Yo, go buy your mom something on Mother’s Day, get out the streets.’ Hopefully I took four young boys off the street with four ghost guns, and they was on house arrest.”
He elaborated that the kids were between 13 to 16, and he worried that “something gonna happen” to them. “I can’t try to tell them to put their guns down, because there’s 500 people getting killed in our neighborhood every year,” he said. “It’s a scary place.”
Time stamp: 1:30:00
Relationship talk was a big part of the podcast, and shortly after a conversation about “eating ass,” Meek confided, “Every girl I ever had broke my heart.” He said his heart still breaks even when he’s the one calling an end to a relationship. “When a woman ain’t who I think she is, I’m hurt about that.”
He compared heartbreak to losing friends while behind bars, describing the hurt he would feel when a cellmate he got along with would just vanish one day. “If you’re dealing with somebody for a long period of time, it don’t matter if I left or love you still…you could have a celly, gotta have a celly for three months, [and then] ‘pack it up, new jail.’ You’re gonna feel like you just lost a chick. You gonna be hurt about that.”
Time stamp: 1:39:00
Closer to the end of the chat, Meek shared his opinion that “times are rough” for men dating right now and that many of his friends have worried about their partners being unfaithful. “They got these little pages out now and they gassing them bitches to the highest extent,” he said.
“I play on them pages, but I don’t want no girl that’s on them pages,” Meek continued. “I don’t want no girl with that type of mind frame.” He said in the past he’s dated women who have shared what he considered suggestive photos on social media, and he would sometimes notice his friends scrolling past those photos.
“He scrolling past my girl with her ass all out acting like I can’t see it, but I know you seen it,” he added. “I don’t see his girl ass every day but he get a chance to see my girl ass on Instagram, that’s kind of degrading. I ain’t judging people that…I just don’t want that, I’m in social media all day myself. ... It don’t make me feel good when my homies see what my girl ass look like.”
Time stamp: 1:44:20
As the chat started to wrap up, the trio continued their talk about relationships and Meek made it evident he would never put a relationship ahead of his family.
“As an entertainer you get like a better side with women—a lot of times I be knowing they ain’t really here for me,” he said. “Going back and showing your grandma appreciation of loyalty to a woman that probably answered a thousand jail calls for you in prison, kept your foundation of your family together…how y’all n***as out here buying these bitches cars and all that? Y’all just push your grandma to the back?”
He explained just how much his grandmother means to him. “My grandma…she called me every day after I bought that house [for her],” he said. “It made my heart get warmer.” Meanwhile, he said when he would buy something for someone he’s in a relationship with, or one of his friends, he wouldn’t feel the same sense of satisfaction or appreciation.
“I ain’t letting no new bitches that been around me two, three years coming in front of these women,” Meek said. “These the queens in my life, my mom, my sister, my grandma. If I ain’t got none of that right, how [am I] gonna be loyal to some chicks?”
