Meek Mill - Legends of the Summer EP

Meek Mill
Legends of the Summer EP
2018
Spotify

Before Meek Mill went to Prison He was most known for dating Nicki Minaj and a public beef with Drake. If you think otherwise you're just kidding yourself. However after being rather harshly punished for a parole violation, the Philadelphia rapper became an advocate for Orison reform and an example of racial bias in the legal system. The hip hop community who had often laughed at Meek, now were advocating, hoping and praying for the man to beat the charge. This new EP arrives after Meek was released finally on bail, and when his star is piping hot. The record opens on the aggressive Swizz Beats produced "Millidelphia", which is one of Meek's better tracks in recent years. The beat is rich and hard which goes with Meek's somewhat yelling style. When Meek tries to dial things down a bit and gets on a sweet song like "Dangerous" with Jeremih and PnB Rock the results are in a word bad. He sounds silly especially with all the things He has been saying in the media lately. "1am" is an attempt at a dirty club banger, but good god does it fall flat. The same can be said for most of this record; it comes across like He is saying something truly important and with great weight, but when you listen to the words they sound silly and absurd, delivered with a ton of aggression.

"Stay Woke" has the lines "Mama taught you how to fight, fight, before she taught you how to write, right And daddy locked down in the cell, can't kiss you night, night Monsters under the bed every night, feel like it's fright night." which read more like a Dr. Suess book than some kind of politically charged anthem about "staying woke". Meek's delivery on "Stay Woke" is also extremely dated, and the song makes Miguel, who sings the hook, sound basic as all hell. It's a track trying so hard to be important that it misses the mark by a huge margin. Its just this deluge of platitudes and things that so many people have said so much better over the years. Meek is really proving what He does when the spotlight is on him, miss. So many times He has been given the chance to be a massive rapper and everytime He misses the mark and we are left wanting something else. Well folks, just because Meek has found yet another reason to be in the public eye doesn't mean He is any better at music, and Legends of the Summer proves it.

4.2 out of 10