Rick Ross's ambitions extend beyond regional boundaries. When he was assembling the acts for Maybach Music Group, his Warner Music Group subsidiary, he cast his net wide, scouting talent in various cities, doing his research, looking for signs of stardom, before finding the three young MCs who have helped make the label’s first official release, Self Made, Vol. 1, into a No. 1 hit on Billboard’s rap albums chart. The three are Wale, from Washington, D.C.; Pill, out of Atlanta; and Meek Mill, from Philadelphia, whose blistering “Ima Boss” is nipping at DJ Khaled’s “I’m on One” for hip-hop’s banger-of-the-summer status.

They all had acumen, strong local followings and success on the mixtape circuit or with viral videos. And they had all been on the cover of XXL, chosen as up-and-comers for the annual Freshmen issue: Wale in 2009, Pill in 2010, Meek this year. Wale released his first album, Attention Deficit, on Interscope Records in 2009. But it flopped, and he looks at MMG as a shot at redemption. Pill and Meek are working on their own solo albums. And touring and traveling for promo spots keeps them all hustling.

Despite their hectic schedules, there’s a relaxedness when they are together that speaks to a strong kinship. The crew has coalesced and, with the support of the label’s other acts, made MMG a force to be reckoned with. The three sat down recently for a roundtable discussion about where they’re at and where they’re going.—Jayson Rodriguez

XXL: So what’s the identity of Maybach as a crew? Bad Boy was about the Champagne life, Roc-A-Fella Records was the hustlers, No Limit Records was Dirty South. You guys are...?

PILL: It’s, like, a coalition almost.

MEEK: It’s, like, all around the board. We come from under that shit, so it’s, like, everything all in one now. Whenever I do interviews, I always say my style is like a Beans mixed with a Cassidy mixed with a Young Chris—

WALE: Mixed with a nigga from the South, too.

MEEK: Yeah, them niggas, too. Is that the strength of the crew, having different elements based on the different regions you all represent?

MEEK: We barely see each other, man. We barely even talk. We gonna keep it all the way real. Do we see each other?

PILL: We usually be on the road.

MEEK: I see Pill in the basement of a party in the A. But we do what we do, getting to the money.

PILL: Exactly. But I think it’s a plus that everybody got their own fan base, they got their own thing rocking in their own city, and they got their own representation of what they stand for. So when everyone comes together, that’s all the fan bases combined. It’s amazing what different cities combined—Miami, Philly, D.C., and New York, with Torch and Triple C’s—it’s a blessing to be able to rock with a bunch of different guys that are passionate about the craft and that know where they going and actually can foresee the future, when it comes to their music. I think that gives us a stronghold and a bit of longevity. And kind of an advantage also.

How would you describe each other’s role in the crew? Who’s Pill?

MEEK: Pill, to me, he’s the deep nigga, the OG nigga, the trap nigga. You know, if you gonna go hang on the block, come to Atlanta, I expect Pill to take me around, get me some nice hood bitches and do what we do.

WALE: To me, Pill is that cousin you got from the South that’s just country as shit. You gonna feel like you live in Atlanta if you hang with him for 30 minutes. He knows what bitches got pregnant or who got shot. He’s, like, the street poet.

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What about Meek?

WALE: Me and Meek, we got a personal relationship. A lot of shit happened before we both got signed. He was quoting shit from my mixtape, and I was tweeting his YouTube shit. And Philly and D.C. are so close; it’s almost like I see myself two years ago, when I see him. Everything is so new to him. He’ll get his checks in them brown bags, and I’ll be like, “This nigga right here...” [Laughs] And all my niggas back home got a relationship with Meek and his crew. That whole Dreamchasers shit naturally happened, without us even being around.

PILL: He’s the young gunner, grinder, spit fire rhymes, hood nigga—he completes the puzzle. You got a nigga who is really going for what he knows right now. If you listen to his music, he’s been in and out of jail, battle rapper, he’s hungry. He displays that real grimy hip-hop shit. Even back then, I heard his shit from a girl from Philly. She had his tape in her car, and I stole it. [Laughs]

MEEK: The first time I heard about Pill, I was in Atlanta, in the studio with T.I. I asked him who the hottest young nigga was. And you know how T.I. is: “I don’t listen to none of these young bucks.” Not coming at anybody, you know? Then he was like, “But I fuck with that boy Pill’s shit.” That was the first time, and after that I was on YouTube checking his shit out.

And Wale?

MEEK: The fly nigga. D.C. nigga. I told him, he’s the nigga, you’ll be joking with him, and then three, four minutes later, this nigga is going through it. What the fuck happened that fast? When you see him sitting there, he’s going through something.

PILL: [Laughs] He’s gonna be the one that put you up on style. He’s always ahead of the curve with the sneaker culture. And another thing, with the music, there’s more emotions. Bitches love this nigga. We almost had to be his security in Las Vegas. Girls screaming, “Can we get a picture?”

MEEK: He’s a substance spitter. Shit that means shit to them ladies. When I do my chick record, he’s gonna write the hook, and he gonna help me write my bars. I’m bad with that. I never had a girlfriend, so I can’t speak to the girls that well.

PILL: That’s wild.

WALE: [Laughs] Meek never had no girlfriend. I don’t know, when it comes to Meek, there’s something about him. I just feel like we were family in another lifetime. It puts me in a better mood when he comes in the room. Every time, whether we are [at a club] or in the studio, he just comes in, “What’s up?” and daps everyone up. What’s something that one of the other guys in MMG may have achieved—Pill had a big viral video, “Trap Goin’ Ham,” Meek has a street banger with “Ima Boss”—that makes you think, I want that in my career?

MEEK: Wale got shit with Lady Gaga, the VMA look.

PILL: That look right there.

WALE: I peaked really early.

PILL: Get out of here.

MEEK: I was in the hood, like, How the fuck did this nigga get shit with Lady Gaga?

What’s the lyrical competition like between y’all?

MEEK: Who gonna be the first one to cop that muthafuckin’ Maybach or that Phantom, that’s our competition. We all can rap good. I get killed by these niggas sometimes on raps and shit.
We don’t compete.

PILL: You bust. You come with your best shit.

WALE: We like a football team. A nigga be a quarterback on a song, a nigga might be the receiver or the running back, but we on the same team. We might go song for song against other people or artists. It’s all love. I don’t think any of us have beef, but when we put out a song—

MEEK: We out to murder you.

FOR MORE MMG, GO TO PAGE 3

So you’re measuring yourself against other crews?

PILL: Everybody ain’t as solid as us. Not to say any names, but niggas ain’t as solid as Maybach Music. Us three alone, not to mention Rozay—add all that in the pot. Gunplay murders shit, Torch, even our R&B side, Teedra Moses and Masspike Miles!

MEEK: We all doing what we gotta do: making money. Niggas just don’t make up reasons to fall out with nobody or shit like that. ’Cause nine times out of 10, you doing you. Every time we run across each other, it’s about something good, not negative shit.

WALE: And, to me, when I hear “Ima Boss” in the club, that’s my song then, too. When he hear “That Way,” that’s his. When I hear “Pacman”—nigga, I thought I was Pill in Atlanta! We did a show out there. I couldn’t fight it. I almost bumped this nigga out the way to perform the song!

What were you each missing individually that joining MMG resolved?

PILL: Me, personally, being able to get a mainstream look. Like, I never got 106 & Park. Although I had MTV and magazines, I never had 106 & Park.

WALE: That’s hood rich.

PILL: I was in The New York Times and Creative Loafing, and it still wasn’t, like, 106. That was, like, the stamp. And to be a part of a project that was in stores, that felt great. That gave me a boost, because I didn’t know when I would be able to get something to retail. That was the one thing I was missing: Could I sell some records? I know I can drop these mixtapes, and I’m working on my project. But there’s always that question in the back of your mind: Can I actually sell? I know my shit is over a million downloads. And I’m like, Damn, I wish that amount of people would actually support. But there’s been projects where I’m on just one song and that did well. I want to know how it would do with me on a bunch of shit. A project with all of us combined [Self Made, Vol. 1], we had a No. 1 album.

I never been on a No. 1 album before. I never imagined I could be on a No. 1 album. I hoped and I wished and I prayed that one day
I could. But we about to have some plaques in a minute.

Meek, a lot of talented Philly rappers make noise but never break out, but now you’re getting the look.

MEEK: Ross gave me the opportunity. You know how when you’re underground, you say, “I know if people in the world hear me, they gonna fuck with my shit.” And Ross gave me a chance to take it to the next level, and put me in that space. And people are actually fuckin’ with it. Ross put me in the space where I can get the listeners I need. The light he got us in, if you fumble this, you dropped the rock.

Wale, you put out an album before, in 2009, on Interscope Records. You’re a part of Warner Music Group. Is it any different for you?

WALE: I try to share with these niggas all the time. Like I told J. Cole—that’s a great friend of mine—I don’t want you to go through what I went through. If I smell something that don’t seem right, I’m gonna tell you. Like, “My nigga, this is what it is, and this is what’s about to happen.”

I don’t give a fuck. I want Meek to do a gazillion times more than what I did my first album. I don’t want him to go through that shit. I don’t want Pill to go through that shit. Rozay don’t want them to go through that shit. Do you know Rozay’s story, for real? He was signed here, here, there, there and couldn’t get it right. It’s almost identical to me. I was fortunate to be so young coming in. I got my first record deal when I was 22. I don’t want them to go through that. And furthermore, Pucci [Gucci Pucci, Ross’s manager and the general manager of MMG] and them know the game so well, they tell us. And I love that about our crew.

There’s an added dimension to your camaraderie, since you three are all former XXL Freshman picks. Do you talk about that?

WALE: I actually thought about it today, for real. I kind of thought about it, because we here doing this roundtable.

MEEK: Wale always would tell me, “Out of that cover, you know there’s only gonna be two, three people that make it.”

WALE: It’s true! That 28K first week, I had to crawl back. I almost didn’t make it. I’m fighting. And that’s what I see with these niggas every day.

MEEK: I told them at the [Freshmen] interview, I said, “We all cool, but I’m about to murder you all.”

WALE: And they probably thought you were crazy. But that’s passion. Not to say everyone isn’t grinding. But it’s like natural selection. That comes from hustle. It’s not even how good your music is sometimes. There’s a lot of niggas that, if they had the opportunity, they might be in this conversation. A lot of it has to do with timing. I say this in every interview: Meek is someone that got a shot and fuckin’ took that bitch to the moon.

PILL: We all trying to do that.

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