Meek Mill is carrying the flag for hardcore hip-hop in an era when the subgenre has been marginalized. The Philadelphia MC initially signed to T.I.'s Grand Huslte imprint, but the deal fell through when Tip was sent to prison in 2009. Meek's urgent delivery soon caught the attention of Rick Ross who inked him to his Maybach Music Group imprint. He generated a strong buzz with his singles “Tupac Back” and “Ima Boss” off MMG's Self Made, Vol.1 compilation and kept his momentum going with his Dreamchasers mixtape series. Dreamchaers 2 spawned “Amen” featuring Drake and “Burn” featuring Big Sean in 2012. His debut LP Dreams and Nightmares was released in 2012.