Meek Mill Teams With Jay-Z to Create Docuseries on Criminal Justice System
Meek Mill's only been out of prison for about two weeks, but he's already using his platform to spotlight the perceived ills of the criminal justice system—and he's teaming with Jay-Z to do it.
On Thursday (May 3), Deadline reported that the Philadelphia rapper and Hov were joining forces with Amazon to create a six-part docuseries focused on Meek's troubles with the criminal justice system. The series will be streaming on Amazon Prime Video exclusively and it is expected to launch in 2019.
Each hour-long episode in the series, which doesn't yet have a title, will give viewers an inside look at Meek's struggles with the law, which are inextricably linked to a probation sentence he received in 2008.
On Nov. 6, 2017, Meek was sentenced to two to four years in prison after violating his 2008 probation for a gun and drug charge. In the aftermath of the case, rappers like Hov—who signed Meek Mill to his Roc Nation Management a few years ago—claimed the sentence was too severe.
In the months that followed, plenty of activists, rappers and other celebrities spoke out against Meek's sentence, which in turn helped lead to investigations that spotlighted corruption in Philadelphia's police force. Eventually, the latter factor led to Meek's release on April 24.
Speaking with CNN last month, Meek said he believed God wanted him to use his experience to spotlight the troubles of other young Black men affected by the cyclical nature of the extended probation.
"I think God delivered me a job to help people, helping minorities that come from these situations like myself," Meek said in a segment CNN aired on April 12. "I say don't show me no pity because this is my life. This is what I've been going through and I think God put me in this position to be able to do a show with Lester Holt and open up eyes for other young Black men."
Now, it looks like he's going to just that.
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