You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs and piece by piece

to the story of how they were made.

My name is Tau-Win.

This episode contains explicit language.

Miek Mill is a rapper from Philadelphia.

He's put out five albums, his most recent, Championships, debuted at number one in the

charts and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rap Album.

In 2007, he was arrested on a gun charge at the age of 19.

And over the last 11 years, he was sent to prison four times for parole violations.

But in July 2019, based on evidence of alleged police corruption, the Pennsylvania Superior

Court throughout his conviction and the parole violation that had led to his most recent

time in prison, a five-month sentence.

It was soon after Miek Mill was released that the song Trauma was created.

He took inspiration from his experiences in prison in his early life in Philadelphia.

In this episode, Miek Mill and Don Cannon, who produced the track, breakdown how the

whole thing came together.

I go by the name of Miek Mill when I got out of prison.

I wanted to explain my mind frame where I come from being locked in the cell.

23 hours a day that could do something to you mentally.

My name is Don Cannon.

It was 2018.

And, you know, I had a heads up where he was going to be released from jail.

...