![]() Much of that impact comes from the feeling “Dreams and Nightmares (Intro)” evokes. The song has only grown more impactful over time. What was intended to serve as a tone-setting opening statement for Dreams and Nightmares unexpectedly grew into a special moment - an instant classic that Drake once described as “one of the best rap moments of our generation,” back when he and Meek were on good terms. READ: Meek Mill Joins Colin Kaepernick’s #10For10 Challenge “I’ve known Meek since 2005 or 2006, and that record was really a sign of his progression in the game.” “I really couldn’t believe I was hearing a record of that magnitude coming from a new-school Philly artist,” Harris tells Billboard. ![]() ![]() Foxx” on 100.3 FM, recalls hearing “Dreams and Nightmares (Intro)” about a year before when The Beat Bully, the song’s producer, played it for him during a meeting. Quincy Harris, host of The Q on Fox Philadelphia and “The Quincy Harris Morning Show with K. “It’s kind of reversed, but when you hear it, the dream part is a little softer and when we go into that nightmare, it turns into a massacre,” Meek told hip-hop journalist Shaheem Reid in 2012. It’s extraordinary because of how Meek’s urgency mounts, his volume gradually increasing before he erupts into unbridled adrenaline. It unfolds in two acts: Meek chronicling his ascent over somber keys before reveling in the success no one expected from a kid from Berks Street, as the beat abruptly turns sinister. As far as graduations from mixtapes to major-label releases go, this one is still satisfying and a step forward, plus slicked up and pimped out in a way that's entirely Maybach.The “Dreams and Nightmares (Intro)” is an intense juxtaposition of extremes: being stuck at the bottom, then rising to the top against the odds. Blige backing he gets on 'Who Your Around,' but his stories of growing up in the concrete jungle lack insight or angle, as turning to a life of crime is just a way to afford 'Polo & Shell Tops,' because that's the way it goes, and it makes for a damn good hook. He's cocky enough to kick off 'Amen' with 'I just wanna thank God, for all the pretty women he let into my life' and then respectful enough to deserve the rich Mary J. Any shuffle button could do just as well, but sliced off into little bits, this is the glittery gangster feeling, big boss stuff that Ross and Maybach fans expect, delivered with Meek's love of combining Twista fast with Rick Ross force, making him the MVP of the star-studded 'Maybach Curtains' (with Nas, John Legend, and Ross) by sheer force of will and volume. Check how the hooky swagger anthem 'Young & Gettin' It' with Kirko Bangz gives way to the heartbreaking 'Traumatized' without a pause, and while Meek's a strong enough, smart enough, and, most of all, determined enough rapper to make these two sides happen, the album doesn't sort these cuts with even a mixtape's sense of care. Having torn it up on the first two volumes of Maybach Music's Self Made compilations, Philadelphia rapper and former Grand Hustle artist Meek Mill finally busts out on his own on Dreams and Nightmares, an apt title for an album that haphazardly bounces between the two.
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