I’m sure everybody has heard of Meek Mill, one of Rick Ross’ newest signees to the MMG movement. To most people, he’s new. But if you ask someone from Pennsylvania about Meek, they’ll probably say finallyyyyyy. He’s been holding Philly down since he was 13/14 yrs old. If you do the proper math, that’s about 12 solid years of grinding minus a short stint in the bing.

When Meek was on the rise and Philly had the whole world making battle rap DVD’s, I was originally a fan of Reed Dollaz and they Take Money camp. It wasn’t until a couple years later when I heard Meek’sFlamerz mixtape that I became a real fan.

He was originally signed to Grand Hustle around the time T.I. started serving his time. After a while, Meek left Tip and eventually linked up with Ross, Wale, Stalley, (formerly) Pill and the Maybach camp.

Though he has yet to release a full length album, I can feel his story. Between the 6+ mixtapes he has released, there are a lot of album-worthy songs with that authentic feel that you can’t find anywhere. Meek and RocNation producer Jahlil Beats did damage to the city of Philadelphia, honing a uptempo sound that is heard ALL throughout Hip-Hop today.

He’s one of the most obvious examples that the grind does pay, salute.

MAZON

S/O TO THE PEOPLE WHO THOUGHT YOU WERE ABOUT TO DOWNLOAD THE PROJECT .. IT COMES OUT TOMORROW .. 1.24

It’s been a minute since The Reminder .. I’m definitely excited to give y’all my next piece of work.

If you didn’t know, my new project, Maintaining drops tomorrow the 24th. It’s been a long time coming but we finally here! I promise to never leave y’all for that long again .. haaaa. Big shout out to Dub Caesar for holding me down and supporting this project.

On this joint I kept the features limited. Even though you won’t hear from Cordell, Cool or White on this one, they’re still around and everybody is still cool. My man Damani got the opportunity to shine on two songs .. “Sunroof” and “Manager” which are two of my favorites on the project. Also featured is Ground Up, some homies of my from the Philly and Baltimore areas. For production I went to Sling Lord, Modurn Marvles, Jusmuziq and the homie MAK.

I love my team and all of my supporters. I’m doing this for y’all really .. Definitely for myself too but I know I’m representing more than myself and I appreciate all the love we’ve been getting over here.

When it drops tomorrow, tell a friend to tell a friend to tell a friend to tell his mama that Maintaining is oooooooouuuuuuuut.

-MAZON

Once again I gotta thank my homies for coming down from Baltimore this month and surprising your boy at Battle of the Canvas in Philly this year! That was hella dope. I’m coming out of the backstage area and I see these fools.. haven’t seen them in a minute so it was good times.

My man Damani joined me on stage like he has been on most of my Philly sets. I feel like it was one of my better performances that I’ve done out here. The flow, the participation, everything was there. I definitely appreciate Simone and the BOC committee for bringing me back for a second year. If they bring me out for a third they’ll get an even better performance, lol..

If you missed out this year then you missed some crazy performances by Sela, Shadowplay, Nonstop to Cairo and more. Preciate everybody who came out, see y’all next year..

-maze

it’s been almost two years since I was a student at Morgan State in Baltimore, but I can still remember the last time I spoke to Julian. it was a homecoming weekend and I had came up to visit and party, the usual. we exchanged daps, he asked me where I had been cause he hadn’t seen me in a while and I told him that I wasn’t a student anymore. then he said, “You still rapping?” I told him of course. He said, “Good.“

that’s a great man we lost and we hate to see it happen but this is life. this is why you gotta take advantage of everyday and grind hard. this is why you appreciate the people you ‘love’ like your family and friends. we definitely lost a soldier.

RIP

- mazon

Way back last year in 2010 when I was making The Reminder, I was pressed for time. A combination of school, work and just life was kicking my ass on the daily. And that’s not the way you want to do it. You want to give yourself enough time to hone your craft and make sure everything comes together. But I’m still in the learning process myself. Regardless of the distractions, I still put out a tough project! I was pleased with what I released but I had some gems in the tuck that I never recorded.. over these instrumentals..

Not to mention a few joints from MAK, Radio Maschine and Aviator. Smh..

#MAiNTAiNiNG -on the way.