Meek Mill Discusses Racism, Civil Lawsuit Against Philadelphia Police

"I don't dislike cops," the rapper says. "I got family that's cops, friends that's cops. Why would I even take this amount of time to do all this?"

After news that Meek Mill lost a civil suit against the city of Philadelphia and its Police Department earlier this week, the rapper spoke with Complex about the case and his reaction to the decision. The suit stems from a 2012 incident in which the rapper claims he was pulled over and had his vehicle unlawfully searched. Mill alleges that the traffic stop conflicted with a private jet flight and public appearance he was set to make as well as affected his endorsement deal with Puma negatively.

“The cops just came out on top,” he said. “The cop I had a lawsuit on, he had about so many complaints about him. He got fired right after I sued them. But he didn’t get fired for me suing them. On the day of court it was like they just believed the cop. I didn’t know that cop had 80 priors when I sued them. I found that when my lawyer investigated and found that out. You know how it go in Federal Court. It’s a jury. They pick a jury. I respect the opinion of the jury but most of the people in the jury was White. They don’t really like understand. They might live on a farm, some of these people live in like suburban areas, they don’t understand the culture where I come from. All they gonna understand is, ‘He’s a cop and he’s not a cop.’ They just went with his word. I was basically like, ‘I’m making a good amount of money. Why would I even waste time on suing this cop or taking any action on this guy.’ I don’t dislike cops. I got family that’s cops, friends that’s cops. Why would I even take this amount of time to even do all this? I had to go to court from 9:00 AM to 4:00 AM everyday this week. I just don’t feel it man. That’s some old timer shit. Most of all the people that’s racist [are] 80 years old. They on their way out anyway. I see ten years from now all that shit’ll be erased in the world. That will be like the past.”

Mill’s civil suit was directed not only at the city of Philadelphia but also at specific officers in question.

“I’m just against racist shit,” he later said when asked about his reaction to the recent Donald Sterling fiasco. I’m not racist. I do shows—I say like ‘nigga’ in my raps a lot—my shows are half White, half Black. I look at the White kids in the crowd they say ‘nigga’ to the song. They not saying it in a disappointing way. I allow it at my shows because if you’re not saying it in a form of disrespect, why take it that way?”

Asked about the possibility of a so-called conscious thread in his music, Mill said he raps “about that shit all the time.”

“About being judged,” he added. “You don’t gotta be Black you could just be anybody. If a White kid move in my neighborhood in the hood where I’m from I don’t think he should be treated any different because he’s a different skin color or anything. In our hood it’s White, Black, everything. They might be into dirt bikes the way we into dirt bikes. We all ride together. We ride as one. If he fall and bust his head we gon’ sit there and wait for that guy to get up and make sure he in good shape no matter if he Black, White, Puerto Rican, anything. He’s still a human being.”