Meek Mill thinks he doesn’t get enough credit like Kendrick Lamar, YG, Mac Miller, and more.
Meek Mill has dropped his brand new project “Expensive Pain“, his fifth studio album. The project featured guest appearances from Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Durk, Lil Baby, Vory, Kehlani, Young Thug, and more. For the promo run, he sat down with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe for a virtual video interview where he talks about the new album, inspiration from the family in Philadelphia, Jay-Z’s influence, and more.
At one point, Zane Lowe asks him that after getting number 1 albums and getting support from the best artists in the industry, is it still some kind of sense inside him that he has something to prove to some kind of unknown entity or energy.
“Personally, and it’s up for the fans to have an opinion, and that’s what keeps me going,” says Meek. “I don’t feel like I get the credit that I deserve as far as the artists. I come from the 2012 era. If you go check the [2011 XXL Freshman Class], shout out to Vanessa, I’m on the cover. It’s me, YG, it’s Kendrick [Lamar], it’s Mac Miller, rest in peace, Fred The Godson.”
He continues, “It’s the few people on there. But all of them guys, I respect them highly, and a lot of them guys lasted in the game. I’m one of them guys that’s still here in 2021. I’m about to put on at a talented level, not a marketed level. I want to go straight to the fans. I started at a Youtube level but now we here on streaming platforms, I wanna go straight to the people, and let my music to feel and live for a long time.”
Meek also discussed how marijuana has influenced his creative process in other parts of the conversation. “Now I’m back in the studio smoking freely,” he added. “I’m not on probation. It unlocked the real art side of me, really new flows, new melodies, being more vulnerable, more personal. I think the people [are] going to be able to identify when they hear this album. I got a lot of energy but I’m not screaming on a lot of records. You can hear me more clear because I’m expressing myself.”
Discussing the naming the project, Meek admits that Brent Faiyaz inspired him to call his album Expensive Pain. “It’s one of my favorite right now. I think this is probably one of my favorite albums where I express myself,” said Meek. “I actually said expensive pain on a song with Uzi when we was in the booth rapping. I said, ‘You ain’t rich, your stash can’t pay my drug bill.’ Basically we smoke a lot of weed and stuff like that, and I was playing it for Brent Faiyaz one day in the studio, he heard me say that, he was like, ‘That bar hot.’ He was like, ‘That’s a fire word, expensive pain.’ He was like, ‘That should be an album title.’ And I started thinking about it and then I stuck with it. And then we start coming up with our definition of expensive pain and what I took from it, just being away from your family in the studio all night, being on tour, the things we go through in life, it could be a million different ways you could break down expensive pain, but through my album, I tell you what mines was.”
Meek also discussed his “slowest” year, which occurred at the period when he and Drake were clashing. “2019, I think my slowest year, me and Drake was beefing. I was at a disadvantage,” said Meek. “He was winning, in the eyes of the people. I still walked my way through that, went through prison, I had to go through something. Once I bounced back out, Championships. We had a pandemic, two years go by, few people fading away. We in 2021, I’m going to stand on Expensive Pain, I’m going to stand on my talent, and I’m going to remain confident and hope that people pay attention to what’s going on because they got a long way to go. I’m trying to keep pushing.”
Watch his interview below.
