Welcome back to the show.
Yeah. Thanks for having me, man.
It's great to have you here, and, uh,
congratulations, I guess, as part of this documentary,
that you are now officially off probation.
-Yeah, definitely. Uh-huh. -That's exciting.
-That really is exciting. -Yeah. Super exciting. Yeah.
-(applause and cheering) -Get to live my life.
You know, for many people, they might... they might see you,
and go like, "Meek Mill-- I mean, I-I saw you out there
living your life already."
Has being off probation actually changed your life?
Yeah. Uh, actually, you know, you...
Uh, for my whole adult life-- I'm 32 years old now,
I was 19 when I got put on probation--
I couldn't travel when I wanted to.
So, like, tomorrow, got a day off.
I want to take my son to Disney World.
I go to Disney World tomorrow.
You know, before, you couldn't really do that, because you have
-to plan probably 30 days ahead to do it. -Right.
Like, nothing can be surprise about your life.
So, you know, of course, just travelling,
-your freedom, doing what you want to do. -Right.
You know, and everything's been good.
-I've been enjoy... enjoying it. -(applause and cheering)
I have... Yeah, I have seen you, um...
-I've seen you smiling a bit more. -Yeah.
You know, since-since all of this happened,
it feels like a weight has been lifted off your shoulders.
I've also noticed that you started changing
how you see yourself living life,
-which is really interesting. -Yeah.
You know, Meek Mill used to just be about rap.
-Yeah. -But now I see Meek Mill investing in Lids.
You know, you're-you're a businessman.
I see Meek Mill out there starting business ventures
-with Jay-Z. -Yeah.
I see Meek Mill, uh, the criminal justice advocate,
which I don't think you may have ever seen yourself as.
-Yeah. -You're-you're not on probation anymore.
Why are you still fighting so hard to change things?
Uh, you know me. Uh, my situation--
you know, I had a lot of backing with mine.
You know, I had people like Jay-Z,
Roc Nation, Robert Kraft, Michael Rubin,
people who are, like, uh, powerful in America
behind me and speaking up for me.
And, you know, uh, I wanted to speak up
for the people who don't have a voice, you know, when even...
As you've seen on the clip, people marching for me
and standing up for me.
Social media world posting "Free Meek."
When I came home, I wanted to dedicate myself
-to helping those people... -Right.
...and helping their family members out,
however they may have been affected by the case.
-(applause and cheering) -Now...
Some-some people out there, you know...
because they either have not had an encounter
with the justice system, come from a privileged background,
may not truly understand what probation is all about.
Some may even say, "Meek, if somebody commits a crime
"and they get out and they're on probation,
they're lucky to be on probation."
Why do you think America should limit
how long people stay on probation?
It's just simple, like, your son... your son or daughter
could be in school and they could get into, like,
a small fight or something like that, and, uh,
get charged with a crime.
And, you know, they get four years of probation.
On your fourth year of probation
your kid decides to smoke marijuana,
take a mistake... make a mistake, not commit a crime.
Uh, you know, a kid don't belong in a-a state penitentiary
-for actually making a mistake on probation. -Right.
You know, if you commit a crime,
then, you know, you land where you lay.
That's a part of that life, but, you know,
people actually going to jail for making honest mistakes,
and people who come out of the system,
trying to build their lives up and-and move forward in life,
and a small mistake could set you back for years, you know?
30 days, doing 30 days in prison,
you could lose your house, you could lose your job,
you could lose a lot things, so, you know,
uh, when you got people working to do better
and trying to change their life, a simple mistake
shouldn't be able to hold you back your whole life,
-like it did me myself. -Right.
It's... it was a fight, I overcame it,
and... you know, I had the resources to overcome it
and the drive and ambition to, uh, make it out of there,
but, you know, uh, it's not...
everybody don't have that drive, you know?
I just wanted to, uh, make awareness
and this Free Meek documentary
will kind of get awareness to the world
about what takes place in probation.
What do you hope people will learn from this documentary?
'Cause a five--part documentary, and it talks about everything,
it talks about your story, but it also talks about the problems
in, you know, a police system, where we've seen, you know,
additional stories come out, where you see the, you know,
the Philadelphia Police Department,
you see police departments around America
where you have police who have tainted records,
you have people fabricating evidence,
you see an unfair system.
What do you hope people will take away from the documentary?
Uh, I want people to, uh-- awareness, you know?
Uh, basically, there's a lot of things
that have been going on in the justice system
for many, many years, and I don't think, uh,
we've ever been to the season where... that where we at now,
where we have, like, we have data, we have, uh, social media,
we have so much news and media
we can attach ourselves to, like...
This is just another source of media,
and me telling it through my story, and, uh,
exposing the corruption that a young black male like me
faces on a daily basis.
You know, you might... I-I got friends
who don't come from my world,
they think that 99% of the people that's in prison
supposed to be in prison-- no, that's not really the case.
It's probably about 50%, 50 and 50.
50 people who don't... 50% of people don't belong there,
because of, uh, a technical violation.
I don't know if you know,
a technical violation is not a crime.
You could be on probation
and just come in contact with a police officer,
and you could have your probation revoked
and sent back to prison. So, you know,
I wanted to give a... a bird's-eye view
on my life since I happen to be in this situation
and I am a public figure, a lot of people know me.
I wanted to give them a bird's-eye view
of what the average American goes through...
just to survive and, uh, get a fair shot in the world.
So, you know, I use my platform.
That's a great thing that you've done, my friend.
Thank you so much for being back on the show.
-(cheering, applause) -Yeah, thanks for having me.
Free Meek premieres August 9 on Amazon Prime Video.
He's back on the road again. Check him out.
Meek Mill, everybody!