Meek Mill has vowed never to leave his son again after learning the youngster was suspended from school shortly after dad was locked up for a probation violation.
The rapper was released from a state prison in Chester, Pennsylvania on Tuesday (24Apr18) after spending five months behind bars and he now tells Rolling Stone the most important thing he's had to do since becoming a free man on bail is talk to his six-year-old son Rihmeek.
"The most upsetting part was my son got suspended (from school) when I was arrested and serving time," he tells the publication.
"My son had never been suspended. He always been doing great in school, and I felt like I was a great failure by being incarcerated (sic). (Not) raising my son was like a big grief to me. It hurt me a lot. It angered me.
"We had conversation. I think he's happy. I told him I would never leave him again."
And Meek was reminded that he was his son's age when he lost his own father, adding, "My father got murdered, and I knew somebody killed him. That's how I remember it. My aunt said, 'You tell your dad goodbye like he ain't never coming back'. It registered to me as a little kid what she said, and I always remembered it."
"I had a phone (in jail), so I stayed in contact with him (Rihmeek)," he adds. "I tried to keep the connection there, but it's not a real connection when you only could call at certain hours.
"My son, he don't get home from school at six o'clock, so you know, it ain't do me the real justice (sic). It was just a reflection of what happens over and over with young black men, like a lot of young black men grow up without father figures and you end up in the wrong places."
The rap star also reveals his five months behind bars has taken a toll on his mum, revealing she turned to drink as the drama surrounding her son's incarceration became too much for her to handle.
"I called my mom the other day (from prison)... She was talking a lot, and she sounded a little slurrish," he recalls. "I know my mom... I was like, 'You was drinking?' 'Yeah, I had three beers'. And my mom, she really been staying away from drinking, because 20 years ago, she was drinking a lot, and she overcame that.
"But just the fact that something that happened to me when I was 18 years old, now that I'm 30 years old, is driving my mom crazy, and I'm not committing crime. I don't think that was really fair."
The Dreams and Nightmares hitmaker is due back in court in June (18), when he'll learn if the 2007 crime he's still on probation for will be tossed after it emerged the police officer who arrested him had been named as part of a local corruption scandal - he was accused of lying under oath to put the rapper behind bars.
