Meek Mill has had a lot going on over the past few days: He announced his first post-prison tour, and he penned a New York Times op-ed about prison reform. Now, he’s made an appearance on Ellen, and while there, he spoke with Degeneres about his stint behind bars and prison reform.
“A lot of these things don’t make sense and everybody knows they don’t make sense, but nobody focuses on changing the system,” Mill said.
He went on to say how something as simple as loitering is a violation of probation, and how a harmless act like that can land somebody in jail: “A lot of people would see somebody [and say], ‘Oh, he violated probation,’ but it could have been loitering at Starbucks, it could have been anything. Police contact is a violation. So, a lot of people would say, ‘Oh, he belongs in jail,’ but I didn’t commit a crime.”
Mill told Degeneres that he found out he would be leaving prison how a lot of other people first heard the news: By watching it on TV. “I was watching the news and [seeing] ‘Meek Mill is up for bail,'” he said. “I dropped my food and jumped up in the air and I was leaving 10 minutes later.”
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Mill also noted that he watched a lot of Degeneres while in prison, saying, “It’s not a lot of good things to watch on TV. They give us the basic channels. I found myself watching Ellen. Some days it was CNN and then it was Ellen.”
There were some lighthearted moments during the conversation, as well: Degeneres reported that Mill beat her at ping pong back stage, and Mill said, “You gotta go to jail to get as good as me at ping pong.”
Watch Meek Mill’s conversation with Degeneres above.
Meek Mill is a Warner Music artist. .
