Rolling Stone has a huge new feature on Meek Mill.
In it, they dive deeply into Meek's arrest in 2007 for selling crack. Like Meek's legal team, they support the theory that something shady went down.
"[Police officer Reginald] Graham claimed he watched Meek sell crack to an informant at 4:45 the afternoon of January 23rd, 2007. According to Meek and three of his cousins, however, he was nowhere near the corner of 22nd and Jackson, where Graham said the deal went down. They say he was three miles away, in a Center City courtroom, from 10 a.m. till 5 p.m. that day. "Our cousin Thelonious was on trial and at least 20 of us were there" to support him from the gallery, says Ikeem Parker, another of Meek's cousins and then-housemates. "With rush hour, Meek couldn't have got home till 6 p.m."
We recently learned that Reginald Graham, the cop who arrested and testified against Meek, was on a list of corrupt cops compiled by the Philadelphia DA.
Rolling Stone also has the goods on Genece Brinkley, the judge who's hounded Meek throughout his probation process and recently gave him 2 to 4 years for probation violations.
Her latest decree, jailing him two to four years for a sheaf of minor infractions, triggered broad outrage and a suite of investigations, including one by this reporter. For 15 years, per the evidence I've obtained, she's committed acts unbefitting her office; a full accounting can be found below. Perhaps worse, though, say lawyers who have sat before her in court, is her treatment of defendants. "She's a sadist," says a Philadelphia attorney who asked that I not name him for his clients' sake. "She puts long-tail probations on young black men, then jerks them back to jail for small infractions."
They also addressed her attachment to Philly talent agent Charlie Mack.
An odd theme emerged in the hearings that followed: Brinkley bashed Roc-Nation, Meek's management firm, and raved about Charlie Mack. "I don't know how or when you all got involved," said Brinkley, but "he didn't have no problems with the other manager." Underwood, the probation officer, joined the chorus: "Working with Charlie Mack, hands down, he is phenomenal. [Your management people] are a problem for you." Meek was perplexed. He'd made pennies with Mack, and more money than he could spend under Roc. Counting royalties, concerts and sponsor deals with Puma, Ciroc and Monster, he was earning $5 million a year. He'd release three albums that would chart Top Three, and would surely have fared better but for Brinkley's rulings.
At the end of the article, Meek talks about what he wants to do when he does get out. And how he wants to leave his hometown of Philly for Atlanta.
"I want to speak on this system and what it does to black people – on both fucking sides of the fence." It's not lost on Meek that the people who harmed him were black – the judge, the cops, his probation officer. "Straight self-hate, man, it makes these people crazy." For a kid from North Philly to come all the way up, then be pulled back down by his own? "Trust me, I'm gonna say something about that. And then, I'm gonna move to Atlanta."
Meek has been granted a post-conviction relief hearing, which will take place sometime next month. So he could be moving to Atlanta pretty soon.
Check out the entire article if you're a Meek fan. It's worth a read.