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Meek Mill is betting on himself. The Philadelphia rapper took to X this week to announce that he’s seeking $5 million in outside funding to fuel a new round of projects—including a book, an album, and a short film.
“I need 5m in funding for book.. album and short film,” Meek wrote. “These label deals not looking fair at all… they ruined the game basically … but I can reboot the whole thing! Why I can’t get the same attention as a tech investment in rap wthelly.”
It’s the latest move from Meek since parting ways with Roc Nation this summer, a split that he’s framed as part of a bigger effort to reclaim ownership of his career. In recent weeks, he’s used social media to vent about the music industry’s barriers to independence—especially the lack of financial pathways for artists outside of the label model.
He doubled down on that point by sharing a clip from DeDe In The Morning that underscored Black culture’s outsized role in shaping American trends. “Why as music artist that’s independent we not dealing with banks when everything surround us in music business lead us back to the banks anyway!” he captioned. “We have total control let’s roll!!!!! Are we allowed to get funding past a record label in America? S*t seems pretty hard lol.”
Beyond funding, Meek is also thinking about how the rap ecosystem itself has shifted in ways that he says are failing the genre. “Rap game not failing the system of the way we intake music is failing,” he tweeted. “I been around since hard copies … DatPiff… WorldStar to DSP’s. I survived all those eras so I can see when it’s a disservice!”
At 37, Meek has outlasted multiple shifts in rap’s business and distribution models, and his latest play suggests he’s positioning himself less as a label-dependent artist and more as a cultural entrepreneur. Whether he secures the $5 million or not, the questions he’s raising about ownership, access to capital, and how music reaches listeners point to bigger conversations about where hip-hop is headed next.
