Hence why the Philadelphia Eagles have embraced it as their anthem during a rocky journey to Super Bowl Lll. It’s deeply rooted in Meek Mill’s North Philadelphia upbringing the grit and chip-on-your-shoulder ambition that characterize the city are evident throughout the song. Much of that impact comes from the feeling “Dreams and Nightmares (Intro)” evokes.
The song has only grown more impactful over time. What was intended to serve as a tone-setting opening statement for Dreams and Nightmares unexpectedly grew into a special moment - an instant classic that Drake once described as “one of the best rap moments of our generation,” back when he and Meek were on good terms. READ: Meek Mill Joins Colin Kaepernick’s #10For10 Challenge “I’ve known Meek since 2005 or 2006, and that record was really a sign of his progression in the game.” “I really couldn’t believe I was hearing a record of that magnitude coming from a new-school Philly artist,” Harris tells Billboard. Foxx” on 100.3 FM, recalls hearing “Dreams and Nightmares (Intro)” about a year before when The Beat Bully, the song’s producer, played it for him during a meeting. Quincy Harris, host of The Q on Fox Philadelphia and “The Quincy Harris Morning Show with K. “It’s kind of reversed, but when you hear it, the dream part is a little softer and when we go into that nightmare, it turns into a massacre,” Meek told hip-hop journalist Shaheem Reid in 2012. It’s extraordinary because of how Meek’s urgency mounts, his volume gradually increasing before he erupts into unbridled adrenaline. It unfolds in two acts: Meek chronicling his ascent over somber keys before reveling in the success no one expected from a kid from Berks Street, as the beat abruptly turns sinister. Blige, decades removed from her Bronx princess days, wailing the chorus to “Who Your Around.” And it also means Ross, Nas, and John Legend intoning portentously on “Maybach Curtains.” To his credit, it’s Meek’s searing voice that burns brightest, not those unnecessary cameos or his hobbled attempts at pillow-humping urban pop like “Rich & Famous” or “Lay Up.The “Dreams and Nightmares (Intro)” is an intense juxtaposition of extremes: being stuck at the bottom, then rising to the top against the odds. That means letting Rick Ross belly-flop over “Believe It” and drop unintelligible metaphors like “I got that Justin Bieber.” It means Mary J. On “Young Kings,” he adds, “Ever since my dad died I ran out of fear ….Nigga, fuck fame!” But he still has bills to pay. That producer also handles Dreams‘ other standout, “Traumatized,” on which Meek memorializes his friends and family members who have died from gun violence: “I was only a toddler, you left me traumatized / You made me man of the house and it was grinding time / So I’ma let this flame hit you just to let this pain hit you,” he raps during a mock conversation with his father’s murderer. 2,” a sequel to a track from his 2011 mixtape Dreamchasers, clearly inspired by Tony Montana, Tony Soprano, and, hell, Capone-N-Noreaga’s “T.O.N.Y.,” though Meek enlivens this clichéd gangsta drama with breathless details as Boi-1da drapes the entire track with the sounds of windshield wipers flicking off rain, creating the impression of a car hurtling through a stormy night. It’s a good song, but it reads like old news here.Ī better calling card is “Tony’s Story, Pt. Kirko Bangz hijacks “Young & Gettin’ It” with his second-rate Drake imitation “Amen,” wherein Meek uncharacteristically lowers his tone a few octaves over Key Wane and Jahlil Beats’ mock-gospel piano, came out in the spring.
MEEK MILL DREAMS AND NIGHTMARES 2 SERIES
And despite plenty of practice as a contributor to Rick Ross’ Maybach Music Group compilation series Self Made, Meek’s label debut lacks viable singles, at least until radio or MTV Jams jams one of them into our brains via relentless airplay. Frankly, listening to someone yell for an hour can get really fucking annoying. He also happens to be a competent lyricist, and it’s that talent, not his loudmouth voice or would-be rap hits, that proves his saving grace on Dreams & Nightmares. And on past singles like “Tupac Back,” “Ima Boss,” and more recently, “Actin’ Up” (with its guilty-pleasure chorus “These bitches be actin’ up / And these niggas be lettin’ ’em”), those shouted raps are aggressively uninhibited, the vocal equivalent of throwing bows. He’s not the first MC with a high-octane delivery - the underrated Ace Hood comes to mind, as well as Freeway, another Philadelphia rapper.
Meek Mill raps as if he is typing in all caps: “I’M BRINGING TUPAC BACK! TUPAC BACK!” He tends to, if not necessarily screech at the top of his lungs, then at least yell loud enough to project an appealing bellicosity.
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