''Them Guys Can Teach You How To Stay Alive''
6:00AM ET October 25th, 2012
Contributor : Martin James
A Rocky Williform Company

Philadelphia-born rhymer Meek Mill explained to XXL that famed Yonkers, NY trio the LOX helped motivate him as a younger man. Meek says that the group's music was a source of inspiration and even guidance for him as a young man on the South Philly streets growing up without a father.

"In Philly, a lot of people die; most people they die from is people the grew up with they whole life," he explained. "My dad was dead since I was five, so I tell [Jada]kiss, Styles [P], all them guys - I was out in the streets at a young age with no guidance, and so I was listening to 'Kiss and them, and some people say them guys say a lot of bad things or whatever, but them guys can teach you how to stay alive. Like 'Kiss said: 'Them n***as that you went to school with/Will catch you while in your new whip/And turn your brains into Cool Whip.' In Philadelphia, most of them guys are really untouchable. They're so wild that nobody could get up on them and when they end up dying, nine times out of ten it's their friend…just seeing that, you grow cold to making new friends and trusting people now...I've seen so many people die, I fe[lt] as though I needed a gun and I had to survive, so I was doing anything, any means necessary."