In 2017, Meek Mill has never been more famous-but little of it has been in the way that he envisioned as a teenager rapping on the corners of Philadelphia. Then after he cleared that hurdle, he and Nicki broke up, precipitating even more messy tabloid drama, to a degree that he'd never come close to experiencing before. A parole violation confined Meek to 90 days of house arrest last year. But a series of frustrated tweets about Drake's unwillingness to promote the album launched a back-and-forth that saw Meek's reputation stomped into the ground. He was dating Nicki Minaj, appeared to have shaken the legal trouble that had stalled him throughout the early years of his career, and had a star-studded album with features from the likes of Future and Drake. With the release of his second album, 2015's Dreams Worth More Than Money, he seemed poised for a mainstream breakthrough. Nonetheless, Meek has faced plenty of challenges in recent years. Any time I get in bad positions I think about where I could be at, where the people I come from are at right now and what they going through compared to what I'm going through." And recognizing my blessings that God gave me and not really focusing on the negative part. Just living like a regular life and keeping my mind going. "If you follow me on Instagram, you see one day I might be in the studio for a month straight, next thing you know I'm on yachts, planes, riding bikes, or with my son at the park. We were at Del Frisco's steakhouse in Midtown Manhattan, and I had asked how he reconciled with pain and frustration. "I try to keep it moving in life," Meek Mill told me earlier that day over lunch. For the first time since he'd arrived, he seemed to be at some level of peace. Although he was due to perform a show across town at Webster Hall in little more than an hour, Meek gleefully hopped on one of the fans' dirt bikes, cracked a smile, and gave it a half ride up Kent Avenue. Meek can be seen on Instagram and in music videos riding similar bikes and ATVs with friends through the streets of Philadelphia and elsewhere. He loosened up, though, when he made it out of the park's enclosure and encountered a few fans who had ridden up on dirt bikes. For the two years leading up to this day, the Philadelphia native had openly struggled with the unwanted attention that fame afforded him, both for positive and negative reasons, and it wasn't hard to imagine his discomfort. Still, for the bulk of the time there, Meek Mill appeared tense, whether because of the heat or the onslaught of people rejoicing to be so close to their favorite superstar rapper. The crowd was eager, and Meek was friendly in greeting his fans, sticking around to take photos with just about every person who approached him. Meek's third studio album, Wins & Losses, had been released that day, and the event was a pop-up shop promoting it. At 6'3", he towered over most of his fans, who hovered in excitement. He wore a green and black tracksuit in spite of the unbearable New York City humidity. Surrounded by bodyguards, he walked toward the bike path, his body motions more fluid than the typically stiff, statuesque poses he makes on Instagram would suggest, his shoulders hunched and long arms swaying as he moved. The rapper Meek Mill drew a crowd around him as he entered the park.
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