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Meek Mill to NBC's Lester Holt: 'No, I don't feel free'

Mill spoke with Lester Holt on NBC's Nightly News, discussing his controversial prison sentence and what he hopes to do now.

Rapper Meek Mill rings the Liberty Bell replica before the playoff game between the Sixers and the Heat at the Wells Fargo Center on Tuesday. Mill, who has been incarcerated since November, was released on bail.
Rapper Meek Mill rings the Liberty Bell replica before the playoff game between the Sixers and the Heat at the Wells Fargo Center on Tuesday. Mill, who has been incarcerated since November, was released on bail.Read moreCHARLES FOX / Staff Photographer

In his first sit-down TV interview since being released from prison on bail Tuesday, Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill said he still doesn't feel free.

Mill spoke with Lester Holt on NBC's Nightly News Wednesday, talking about the controversial prison sentence and what he hopes to do moving forward.

The rapper said he's been experiencing a bit of a "culture shock" while transitioning back to reality after spending the last five months in a cell in a Chester prison. Last year, Common Please Court Judge Genece E. Brinkley sentenced Mill to two- to four-years behind bars for probation violations related to a decade-old conviction on gun and drug charges.

 >>READ MORE: Listen up, Meek Mill, whether you want to be or not, you're now a role model | Editorial

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Tuesday granted the rapper "extraordinary relief" after the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office recently raised questions concerning the credibility of his arresting officer. Upon release, Mill was immediately rushed off to the 76ers game, where he was joined by the team's co-owner Michael Rubin, comedian/actor Kevin Hart and Gov. Wolf.

While he may be out of prison, Mill is still technically battling a conviction and is scheduled to appear in court in June.

"No, I don't feel free," Mill told Holt during the broadcast. "I ain't feel free since I caught this case at the age of 19. I'm 30 now. And me, I just pray. I believe God is my first lawyer, I always believed that."

The award-winning rapper told Holt that he recognizes the responsibility he carries as a public figure.

"I got a lot of important people depending on me," he told Holt. "And I'm not talking about them people, public officials, I'm talking about the men that's depending on me going through the same thing I'm going through."

 >>READ MORE: Meek Mill, freed from prison, has his biggest audience ever

Holt also spoke to District Attorney Larry Krasner, whose office did not oppose the rapper's release on bail, as well as Rubin, who shared similar sentiments as Mill.

"His story is so much bigger than his life," Rubin said. "This is about how he can be the symbolic change agent that was needed for major criminal justice reform. That's why you should care."

The Nightly News conversation will be featured on a Dateline broadcast later, Holt wrote on Twitter. Mill's Wednesday interview came just two weeks after Holt spoke to the rapper by phone in prison.