Intro

Album: Championships (2018)
Charted: 55
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Songfacts®:

  • Meek Mill has a history of setting a high bar with his album introductions, dating back to his 2012 "Dreams and Nightmares" preamble. This song continues the trend, with a throwback sample of Phil Collins' "In The Air Tonight" to accompany his rhymes about overcoming the odds and making it out from the trenches.

    "I just feel like the way it was put together was needed in these times right now," Meek told The Breakfast Club. "Kendrick sells this on his block, J. Cole sells this on his block, and I always just wanted to have my own block. I just think there was a wide open space for someone to do it. This type of music is some s--t that a lot of people could relate to."
  • The instrumentation is courtesy of the Philly rapper's frequent collaborator Nick Papz (better known as Papamitrou), who is the first producer officially signed to Meek Mill's 'Dreamchasers' record label. He contributed to four Championships tracks in total.
  • Other rappers that have sampled "In the Air Tonight" include Nas on "One Mic" and DMX on "I Can Feel It."
  • The gritty video was directed by Kid Art who also helmed Meek's "Dangerous" clip.
  • Meek Mill and Nick Papz had a previous version they'd done in 2016. When the Philly rapper asked the beatmaker to flip the Phil Collins sample again, he came up with the instrumentation on the spot in the studio.

    "He loved it, but I didn't personally like it at the time," Papz recalled to Billboard. "I felt my drums weren't on par. I'm the type of person who wants to sit by himself in the studio and take my time with no pressure. The next day, I went into the studio and it came out perfect."

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