So Meek and I played a game of ping pong backstage.
Basically, I gave Ellen that smoke backstage.
[LAUGHING]
Yeah.
He beat me and I said, I'll get you, I'll come back,
I'll get you.
I will.
[LAUGHING]
You got to go to jail to get as good as me.
[LAUGHING]
Spend some time in jail and then--
because you have that spin.
You have that--
A little wrist action.
Tricky, it's too tricky.
I just learned that you watched my show in prison.
Yeah.
It's not a lot of good things to watch on TV.
They gave us, like, the basic channels so I found myself
watching Ellen.
Some days it was CNN and then there was Ellen.
[LAUGHING]
All right, so let's talk about this
because it's really kind of infuriating and frustrating.
Let's talk about the first time that you went to prison.
What happened?
The first time I went to prison I actually got
locked up in the South Philly areas,
like, really I call them ruthless environments where,
like, you know, a lot of violence
happened, a lot of drugs happened.
You know, this is where you have to hang at.
If you grew up in this area and you don't have money,
you grow up in poverty, these are the areas that we hang at.
So you end up at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Actually, I didn't really have any guidance.
I was hanging around a bunch of the wrong people
and I got caught up.
When I went to court, you know, I
don't know if anybody seen my mug shot when I went to court.
When I went to see the bail judge she was like,
you're here for shooting a police off-- well,
pointing a firearm at a police officer, selling drugs.
I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, pointing a gun?
I wouldn't be here right now if I pointed a gun at a police
officer.
Anybody believe that, I think--
[APPLAUSE]
I got locked up--
I got locked up in, like, a bus where five or six officers
come at one time.
So it wasn't like me and the officer one on one.
Five cops, you got two, three cops saying I
pointed a gun at them without a single shot being fired,
nobody being hurt but me.
And you know, actually, I had to fall for that case
and I got felonies on my record for that case.
And they put me on probation from--
I was 18 years old, 19 years old when I got on probation.
I'm 31 years old, still on probation.
OK, so you're on probation, and then
what happens the next time?
What was wrong?
A year ago I got locked up for wheeling a motorcycle
and was sentenced two to four years.
For doing a wheelie on a motorcycle?
Yeah.
Actually, I didn't even get caught on the bike.
I posted on my Instagram, so the next day
I went back to that area to a charity basketball game,
20 cops came up and arrested me and I went to prison.
Well, you shouldn't have posted that.
[APPLAUSE]
If you follow me on Instagram, my whole Instagram
is about wheeling bikes.
I've wheelied bikes through America for the last seven
years.
I know, but now look what that did.
All right, so you're in for stupid reasons.
You shouldn't have been in there.
And you had no idea that so many people
were fighting to get you out.
You had no idea.
No, I did have an idea after, like, the fourth or fifth day.
The first week I was being, like, a public figure,
they put me alone in a cell.
You're locked down 23 hours a day.
When I got out I actually start watching the news on TV
and I was saying, like, CNN, like, big TV stations talk
about my situation, so I'm like, this
must be something good going on because I
got people standing behind me.
And usually in these situations people
go to jail over these things all the time,
like minor things, not even committing crime,
which people don't understand.
A lot of people would see somebody, oh, he
violated probation.
It could have been loitering at Starbucks,
it could have been anything.
Police contact is a violation.
So a lot of people would say, he belongs in jail.
But I didn't commit a crime and I've been doing goods
since I've been--
Yeah.
No, you did not belong in jail at all.
You didn't.
So the day you find out you're getting out,
did you know you were getting out or they just came to you
and said, you're getting out?
I was in my cell, I just cooked.
I had rice and mackerel, they good.
They sell, like, a mackerel fish.
And I was eating and I was watching the news, actually--
three or four o'clock.
What time your show come on east coast, 4:00?
Mm-hm.
I'm watching the news and, Meek Mill is up for bail.
I dropped my food, jumped up in the air
and, you know, I was leaving 10 minutes later.
Wow.
So you get out and you saw all the people
outside waiting for you?
Yeah.
I came outside--
I was kind of, like, dizzy.
That's it right there.
Yeah.
That's amazing to see that many people
supporting you and celebrating you getting out.
How long were you in?
Five and a half months.
Yeah, five and a half months.
Yeah.
Well, you're out now.
And so you're the face of criminal justice reform
and did you ever imagine you would get to this point?
Just having, like, growing up in the environment I grew up in,
it wasn't never really like a lot of support.
You got support from, like, your mother.
If you had a father, you had that type of support.
But we didn't really get a lot of support,
so I wanted to, like, pay the people back that actually
came out and, like, supported me and really
just make what's right, right.
Because a lot of these things don't make sense and everybody
know that it don't make sense, but nobody
focused on changing the system.
Well, you're going to help a lot of people
because a lot of people are going to listen to that.
[APPLAUSE]
There's a lot of work that needs to be done.
There are a lot of people in jail that don't need to be
or in prison that don't need to be in prison.
They just sit there and wait and wait and wait, and you know.
It's almost like you being voiceless.
Like, even being on a show like this too--
I appreciate having me on this show.
Like, a lot of people that I was locked up with I
know they're probably watching this show right now.
Shout out to them.
And it needs to be changed.
It really does.
So I'm glad you're doing it and shout out
to your friends who are watching in prison right now.
Shout out to whole [INAUDIBLE],, everybody that helped me down.
You have a new album coming out.
You can go to Spotify this Friday
to stream Meek's new album.
It's called Championships and thanks so much for being here.
Oh, yeah.
Thank you for having me.
And whenever you want your rematch, let's get it.
[APPLAUSE]
We'll be back.