Meek Mill has come a long way from running from his worst nightmares to chasing wildest his dreams. During a recent interview the jail bird turned rap star went into detail about just how real it could have gotten for him. "I was 18, just turned [into] an adult when I went to jail," he explained of his troubled past during an interview with MTV’s This Is How I Made It. "I caught a case and had 57 charges. Young guys that get caught with a gun — they're gonna automatically charge you up. All I did was walk outside with a gun."

Fortunately for the MMG rapper the majority of the charges were dropped, but Meek went on to serve a stint in prison on weapons charges. It was during that time that he had a life changing epiphany. "I just [didn't] wanna die,” he said, “I [didn't] wanna get shot or get life in jail because that's the usual script. I ended up going about 20-something months and realized that wasn't the place I wanted to be."

When he was released in early 2009, he made music his top priority. "I really put my life into rapping," he added. "They let me out on house arrest and the judge gave me permission to go to the studio for 12 hours straight and I started putting up six songs a day for three months straight — that's what gave me my little jump start."

The rest, as they say, is history. Meek’s MMG debut Dreams and Nightmares debuted at No. 2 on Billboard’s Top 200 albums chart pushing 167,000 copies in its first week on shelves since being released October 30.

Check out the entire interview, below.


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