The rapper is out of jail and making new music, but is he #free?
MEEK MILL’S LIFE can be split almost down the middle, into BP and AP: before probation, after probation. Lately, moments from the first half don’t come to him so easily; he’s spent more of the past decade bound to the system than he’s spent out of it. Struggling to recall his last memory of freedom, he says, “Maybe not since I was 10 or 12, sitting at home playing a game all day.” But his snap response feels more truthful: “I’ve never felt free, coming from where I came from.”
Once thought of mainly as a skilled battle rapper, Mill, 31, was raised in North Philadelphia (“Millidelphia” to his fans). Ever since he was sentenced to probation in 2008 for brandishing a gun at a cop during a drug raid—both Mill and witnesses maintain he didn’t do this— he has been at the mercy of local judge Genece E. Brinkley. Every few years, like clockwork, she has had him jailed or put under house arrest at her sole discretion. These days, he legally cannot be away from his hometown for more than 30 days at a time.
He’s about halfway through his current stint away. We’re currently on set—a barren lot in Baltimore’s Green mount West neighborhood—for Mill’s acting debut. He’s playing the leader of a revered dirt-bike gang in an adaptation of the documentary 12 O’Clock Boys, which is named for the group. Street art decorates the exteriors of the otherwise dilapidated buildings. Mill has been splitting his time between Baltimore, Miami, and New York, where he’s recording his forthcoming fourth album, Championships. Since he was released from prison in April, Mill has become something of a criminal-justice reform activist, but the rapper has long been a fixture in hip-hop, first as a member of the Philadelphia group the Bloodhoundz and later as a solo artist.
Bu hikaye New York magazine dergisinin November 26, 2018 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye New York magazine dergisinin November 26, 2018 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Drowning in Slop - A thriving underground economy is clogging the internet with AI garbage-and it's only going to get worse.
SLOP started seeping into Neil Clarke's life in late 2022. Something strange was happening at Clarkesworld, the magazine. Clarke had founded in 2006 and built into a pillar of the world of speculative fiction. Submissions were increasing rapidly, but “there was something off about them,” he told me recently. He summarized a typical example: “Usually, it begins with the phrase ‘In the year 2250-something’ and then it goes on to say the Earth’s environment is in collapse and there are only three scientists who can save us. Then it describes them in great detail, each one with its own paragraph. And then—they’ve solved it! You know, it skips a major plot element, and the final scene is a celebration out of the ending of Star Wars.” Clarke said he had received “dozens of this story in various incarnations.”
The City Politic- The Other Eric Adams Scandal The NYPD shot a fare evader, a cop, and two bystanders. He defends it.
On Sunday, September 15, Derell Mickles hopped a turnstile, got asked to leave by cops, then entered the subway again ten minutes later through an emergency exit. This was at the Sutter Avenue L station, out by his mother's house, five stops from the end of the line. Police said they noticed he was holding a folded knife. They followed him up the stairs to the elevated train, asking him 38 times to drop the weapon.
Can the Media Survive?
BIG TECH, Feckless Owners, CORD-CUTTERS, RESTIVE STAFF, Smaller Audiences ... and the Return of PRINT?
Status Update
Hannah Gadsby's fascinatingly untidy tour through life after fame and death.
A Matter of Perspective
A Matter of Perspective Steve McQueen's worst film is still a solid WWII drama.
Creator, Destroyer
A retrospective reveals an architect's vision, optimism, and supreme arrogance.
In Praise of Bad Readers
In a time of war, there is a danger in surveying the world as if it were a novel.
Trust the Kieran Culkin Process
First, he nearly dropped out of Oscar hopeful A Real Pain. Then he convinced Jesse Eisenberg to change the way he directs.
The Funniest Vampires on TV
What We Do in the Shadows is coming to an end. Its idiosyncratic brand of comedy may be too.
The Water-Tower Penthouse
Gigi Loizzo and Angel Molina's apartment on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx looks out on Yankee Stadium.
