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. Rick Ross' Massive Car Show Featured Performances From Meek Mill, Gucci Mane “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. The “Dreams and Nightmares (Intro)” is an intense juxtaposition of extremes: being stuck at the bottom, then rising to the top against the odds.

READ: Court Clerk In Meek Mill Case Fired After Asking Rapper To Pay Son’s Tuition But for Meek Mill, the opening statement of his 2012 debut album, Dreams and Nightmares, will forever be regarded as his manifesto. What’s perhaps even more rare, however, is for an intro to become arguably that artist’s signature record. It’s uncommon - and, typically, unfortunate - for an intro to be celebrated as an album’s defining moment.

Dreams and nightmares instrumentals