Meek Mill's 'Expensive Pain' comes with a heavy cost

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. I would be lying if I said I felt totally free.” Feelings of uncertainty, along with fears of distrust and betrayal created from the ghosts of his past, have been seared into his new album, “Expensive Pain ” Staying true to his brand, Meek Mill’s latest project explores balancing fame and wealth while carrying the mental scars from a rough Philadelphia upbringing. “This pain I’m getting now, it’s like I’m losing family members because I ain’t letting people borrow money.” “Expensive Pain” is Meek Mill’s first full-length project since 2018’s Grammy-nominated “Championships” which came out seven months after his prison release following a 2017 sentence for probation violations involving a decade-old gun and drug possession case. Meek Mill’s 18-track “Expensive Pain,″ featuring production from Boi-1da, Cardo, in-house Dream Chasers producer Nick Papz and others, boasts some of hip-hop’s young stars such as Lil Baby, Lil Uzi Vert, Young Thug, Lil Durk and R&B singer Kehlani He is planning an “Expensive Pain: Meek Mill & Friends” concert on Oct. 23 at Madison Square Garden. He takes a page from his younger collaborators by experimenting with melodic rap — the sound that now dominates hip-hop — on songs like “On My Soul,” “We Slide” featuring Young Thug and “Angels.” “Through quarantine, I had like a vicious writer’s block because every time I try to go to a next level, I get real uncomfortable in trying new things.