(Variety)
Meek Mill never set out to be an activist for criminal justice reform. Nursing a glass of green juice at a Beverly Hills hotel shortly after performing at Staples Center, the 32-year-old sometimes seems like he’d prefer to discuss just about anything else. His rap career, for one, which after nearly a decade of legal stops and starts, finally reached the level it had long promised with last winter’s platinum-certified “Championships.”
But activism — or as he prefers to call it, advocacy — is nonetheless something that’s been thrust upon him, and Amazon’s upcoming five-part docu-series “Free Meek” (it premieres Aug. 9) details how this quick, intense, yet often slyly irreverent rapper from North Philadelphia became the unlikely public face of America’s broken probation system.
“I don’t want to be a rapper who’s just this serious guy all the time,” he says. “I think most activists have it in their heart that this is what they love to do seven days a week. Me, I don’t love to do interviews about reform seven days a week. This wasn’t a part of my life until it became my life experience, but I’ve seen people stand up for me, so I’m gonna use what I’ve built up through my rap career to pay people back and get my message across. Read more
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