Controversial Meek Mill At The Dome

If music people — hip-hop producers, game makers and soundtrack composers — would stop sampling from “Carmina Burana,” it would be a better world.

Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill’s latest mixtape, “DC4,” starts off with a riff from the familiar ominous piece of music. It sets the stage for dark and serious business. Even by hip-hop standards, Meek Mill has a lot of beefs and high-profile flaps with people, run-ins with the law, disses for and from artists like Drake and Beanie Sigel, disapproval from preachers, etc.

Despite the controversies, Meek Mill seems to think that rap saved him from a life of poverty and violence. “If it wasn’t for this music, I’d probably be dead,” he raps on his latest. Meek has a way with delivering steady triplets in his raps, throwing odd stresses and accents to vary the pulse. Hip-hop is often fixated on material wealth, and Meek likes to draw attention to his Rolodex and his Rolls Royce, but he says that making riches and flaunting them is just a way of modeling success and inspiring young people.

Mill also collaborates with sportswear maker Puma on designs and special-edition sneakers. After getting a lot of negative attention online, Mill seems to be stepping back a little from the relentless churn of social media, telling fans that he’s more interested in friends, family and his creative projects than in gossip or scandals.

Meek Mill takes the stage at the Dome at Toyota Presents Oakdale Theatre, 95 S. Turnpike Road, Wallingford, on Friday, Dec. 30, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $65. 203-265-1501, livenation.com.