You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs and,
piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made.
My name is Tao Nguyen.
This episode contains explicit language.
Meek Mill is a rapper from Philadelphia.
He's put out five albums.
His most recent, Championships,
debuted at number one on the charts and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rap Album.
Back in 2007, he was arrested on a gun charge at the age of 19,
and over the last 11 years, he was sent to prison four times for parole violations.
But in July 2019, based on evidence of alleged police corruption,
the Pennsylvania Superior Court threw out his conviction and the parole violation that had led to his most recent time in prison,
a five-month sentence.
It was soon after Meek Mill was released that the song Trauma was created.
He took inspiration from his experiences in prison and his early life in Philadelphia.
In this episode, Meek Mill and Don Cannon,
who produced the track, break down how the whole thing came together.
I go by the name of Meek Mill.
When I got out of prison, I wanted to explain my mind frame, where I come from,
being locked in a cell 23 hours a day that could do something to you mentally.