.
http://www.rollingstone.com/assets/images/album_review/9rpml-1352151309.jpg Dreams and Nightmares

Meek Mill

Dreams and Nightmares

Maybach Music / Warner Bros.
Rolling Stone: star rating
Community: star rating
5 3.5 0
November 9, 2012

"Rapper" is a term that doesn't quite fit Robert Williams, the talented Philadelphia MC who performs as Meek Mill. He is a barker, a bellower – an heir to the tradition of Ice Cube, unloading his rhymes in a rat-a-tat staccato assault, at maximum volume. Listeners who know Meek from his Dreamchasers mixtapes and scene-stealing cameos on Maybach Music compilations will recognize the character in the title track on his major-label debut: a braggart with a chip on his shoulder and a knack for stacking up nifty interior rhymes. ("Did it without an album/I did shit with Mariah/Little nigga, I'm on fire/Icy as a hockey rink, Philly nigga, I'm Flyer.") In hits like the Drake collaboration "Amen," Meek cleverly tweaks sex-rap clichés. But on Dreams and Nightmares he mostly keeps things gritty, telling – that is, yelling – hardscrabble street stories, in a voice big and brassy enough to be heard 20 blocks away.

Listen to 'Dreams and Nightmares'

prev
Album Review Main Next

ADD A COMMENT

Community Guidelines »
loading comments

loading comments...

COMMENTS

Sort by:
    Read More

    Music Reviews

    more Reviews »
    Daily Newsletter

    Get the latest RS news in your inbox.

    Sign up to receive the Rolling Stone newsletter and special offers from RS and its
    marketing partners.

    X

    We may use your e-mail address to send you the newsletter and offers that may interest you, on behalf of Rolling Stone and its partners. For more information please read our Privacy Policy.

    Song Stories

    “Help Me”

    Joni Mitchell | 1974

    Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.

    More Song Stories entries »