With ‘Championships,’ Meek Mill might become a Grammy champ

On “Oodles O’ odles Babies,” a song on Meek Mill’s latest album, he raps about childhood struggles battling everything from poverty to violence, and proclaims: “We couldn’t afford clos/It handed me down/Who would think a (dude) get a Grammy w?”

Recording Acemy. Mill is a leing contender to win a Grammy after receiving his first-ever mination last month.

“I always try to speak things into existence,” rapper said in an interview with Associated Press last week. “That’s always been my thing. If you follow my music and look back, everything I said in past that I wanted, it came into fruition.”

Mill, born Robert Rihmeek Williams, has spent last dozen years grinding on music scene, releasing mixtapes, EPs and albums, gaining new fans and earning credit for his respected lyrics and storytelling, while also becoming a hometown hero in his native Philelphia.

w, at 2020 Grammy Awards, he’s competing for best rap album with platinum-seller “Championships.”

“It feels great to be ackwledged for your talents,” he said at a recording studio where he’s working on new music. “I try t to focus my eyes on accoles and (stuff) like that. ...I’m like a street rapper (and) we’re last people to be minated ... I just try t to put my thoughts (or) let my faith and my energy go into someone judging me that can bring your spirits down, lift it up, so I just stay in my zone. If I get one that’ll be greatest (thing) in world, though.”

19-track “Championships” was created at a pivotal time in Mill’s life — it was released seven months after Mill, 32, was released from prison following a five-month campaign by his supporters to get him out of jail for dece-old gun and drug convictions (an appeals court overturned his convictions in July).

He said he pulled from his real life as he wrote songs for album: When he penned “Trauma,” which includes lines about being in jail and dealing drugs, he was preparing to go to court for his own case. During time he wrote “Respect Game,” he was going “through something with someone around me counting money in my pockets; your friends see you making a lot of money and y’re counting your money for you.”

“My music represents something,” he ded. “It actually has a meaning to things I say — even if it’s something that you may t want to hear, or where you come from, or that you might t understand, everything has a meaning to it. Everything has a mess to it. It’s just delivered in a witty way, it’s like a puzzle. One mess can have 100 messs into it.

At Grammys, Mill’s competition includes Tyler, Creator’s “Igor,” 21 Sav’s “I Am I Was,” YBN Cordae’s “ Lost Boy” and “Revenge of Dreamers III,” compilation from J. Cole and his Dreamville labelmates.

Mill, who joined mentor Jay-Z and ors earlier this year to form Reform Alliance, a coalition that lobbies for changes to state probation and parole laws, said his role as a reform vocate helped his music reach new people, and ultimately helped him land a Grammy mination.

“I got billions of impressions just from my case. I just happened to land in front of that. It was a (messed) up thing. Media caught on. It was a big media thing. People got a bird’s eye view of who I am,” he said. “w when you see Meek Mill performing on ‘Colbert’ show, or see Meek Mill on ‘Ellen,’ you might tap in.”

“Championships” features collaborations with Jay-Z, Cardi B, 21 Sav, Future, Fabolous and Ella Mai, who appears on “24/7,” which samples Beyoncé’s 2003 hit “My, Myself & I.”

“I’m Jay-Z’s young bull, so I get to throw that special call in,” he said of clearing sample.

album also features former nemesis-turned-friend Drake, who appears on Top 10 pop hit “Going B.”

“I don’t remember who called who, but he gave me song, sent it to me. I finished that song probably day before my album came out — very last song,” Mill said.

On track, Mill raps about one of current “it girl” celebrities as as object of desire: “I got Lori Harvey on my wish list (that’s Lori)/That’s only thing I want for Christmas (true story, uh).”

What does Mill want for Christmas this year?

“I want my chick for Christmas,” he said, referring to his real-life girlfriend. “When you rapping you just talking (stuff). You gotta ask Lori what she wants for Christmas ways.”