Killer Mike Interview
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😹
FunTranscript
00:00What is happening, Captain?
00:02Man, blessed to be here.
00:04Happy as all outdoors.
00:05How you doing?
00:06I love that shirt.
00:07I got to get one of those.
00:08Oh, come on.
00:09You know, I look at you and Jazzy Faye out of the A,
00:12like y'all my fashion go-to's.
00:14I was waiting for one of y'all to drop a clothing line.
00:17That fat boy flyboy's like, I don't have a line, man,
00:19but I'm going to tell you, I found a cool brand on the internet, man,
00:22called Grand Culture.
00:24They make, like, street luck stuff, but it's,
00:26if they start at XXL, I mean, the XL and go up.
00:30So, you know, I've heard they've done some specialty pieces,
00:33like for some people that are mediums that they like, but, man,
00:36I'll sing you their page.
00:38It's some cool stuff, though.
00:39I rock it.
00:40I rock it.
00:41Yeah, that's what's up, man.
00:43Hey, dog, I got to tell you, first of all,
00:44to have Denise's only son on with me right now,
00:50because, I mean, we go back, and I'll tell you, like,
00:53third-layer Greg, you know, when he was here with me.
00:56You know what I'm saying?
00:56That entrepreneur that is out there making things happen right now.
01:00You know, so, I mean, you with Big Boy,
01:03coming to the last damn shows with us and stuff.
01:05It's like, you know, to see you in that space
01:09where you got this RTJ4 that drops,
01:13and then we in this world space where you got this voice,
01:17I just got to tell you, sit back.
01:18I'm proud of you, bro.
01:20Oh, man, thank you, man.
01:21I appreciate it, man.
01:22People know how much, man, Chapel St. Pete mean to me,
01:24my family down there.
01:26You know what I'm saying?
01:27People know how much Florida means to me.
01:29Just that Florida, Florida, and it sounds like Miami has always been big
01:32because culturally they influenced Atlanta with the music.
01:35But all those spots, man, the Tampa, the St. Pete's,
01:39the Tallahassee, the Jacksonville, the Orlando's,
01:42those cities made me.
01:43Gainesville, they gave me my career, you know what I mean?
01:46So I'm appreciative that you don't look like you've aged a day,
01:50and I find a new gray every day.
01:52So I'm glad it's been good, but I just appreciate y'all
01:57because every step of the way where y'all,
02:00even when I went pivoted more to an underground artist,
02:03if I came to town, an interview was given and support was given
02:06and helped the wide audience know what's out there.
02:08And I'll never forget those things.
02:10It's rap, rap, though, man.
02:12It's like it's real, real rap.
02:15Like it's funny because I look at you and I'm just like,
02:19it's always been bars.
02:21But now it's just, it's almost like that three-man weave with you and LP,
02:25like that give and go where it's like now I've got to do all 16.
02:28I'm about to hit you in the head with eight.
02:30Yeah.
02:31Letting up get eight.
02:32What it is, it's a great partnership.
02:35It's like our perfections and imperfections lock in with each other.
02:39You know what I mean?
02:40Like, you know, as hard as I go, 16 bars are hard.
02:44Sometimes by the time they enter the record, people are like, ooh.
02:47But with L coming in and our styles contrasting
02:49and complimenting one another at points, it just feels, you know,
02:52what we've been compared to are two groups I'd never compare myself to,
02:55but I appreciate the comparison as a study of rap because I get it.
02:59We've been compared to Outkast and the Beastie Boys.
03:02So when you listen stylistically to the Beastie Boys,
03:05you're hearing three interesting different styles interplay
03:08and intertwine with one another.
03:09You know what I mean?
03:10When you're hearing Outkast, you're hearing different thoughts
03:13and different patterns.
03:15Like, no one does a better multiple-sitter pattern.
03:19Like, no one does patterns as well as Big Boy.
03:21And no one creates deep, in-depth thought,
03:24almost like conversing like Drake.
03:27So together, man, it was always some thoughtfulness
03:31and always some player shit, you know, to be frank.
03:34So what I've enjoyed about being Run the Jewels is that balance
03:38that L and I have with each other.
03:40It's allowed me to be a freer artist.
03:41I'm happy for it.
03:43It's crazy, too, because when, like, when you look at it,
03:46it's almost like the game of the chicken and the egg.
03:51Because you want to know, did the verse come first
03:53or did the beat come first?
03:55Because it's like when you got a producer in there,
03:57it's like he can mold it around your vocals.
04:00Well, the beats, the beats, L goes off with Taco and Wilder,
04:04who are brothers and also assist in the co-producing.
04:09So it's a team, you know what I mean?
04:11It's all of us.
04:12We understand how each other thinks at this point.
04:14So L goes and locks away for months just working on beats.
04:16And he won't even play beats for me
04:18until he thinks they have a certain caliber.
04:20And then he'll come in and the beat plays.
04:24And usually one of two things happens.
04:26And he may have an idea, tell me an idea, put it down,
04:29put something down.
04:29Or I'll sit there, and we call it Catching the Holy Ghost
04:32when it's just like, is the mic on?
04:34Because I've got to get it out now.
04:35And I just go in the booth since I don't write.
04:37And it just kind of starts flowing and growing.
04:40And that's the way it works.
04:40Now, since L is an amazing producer,
04:43if there are little NEO sequences and things within the track
04:45that maybe a flow brings,
04:47a lot of times I'll find another pocket.
04:48Like, if you listen to Just Money,
04:50I'm rapping with a southern bounce pocket.
04:53Any time, I'm on mine.
04:55But I'm over a beat that's not there.
04:58So he'll go produce, reproduce.
05:01I'll go back.
05:02He'll say, well, listen, I need you to be open-minded
05:04because I put a whole new track under the song.
05:07But I'm used to that because Ray Murray from Organize
05:09does the same.
05:09So I love it.
05:10It's a fun process because it's more like two 15-year-old boys
05:14locked in a room with a bunch of equipment all day.
05:16It isn't really serious.
05:19You know what I mean?
05:19We put serious subject matter in the music,
05:21but we enjoy the process of making music together.
05:25And we always get in the same room to do it.
05:27You mentioned Just Money.
05:29And I got to tell you, I love that.
05:30I was like, who made this hook?
05:32Because the hook is fire.
05:34Pharrell, man.
05:35Pharrell came in.
05:36He heard it.
05:36He loved it.
05:38Zach Dallaro from Rage Against the Machine.
05:40This is his third appearance on a run of Juve record.
05:42You may as well say Zach's a third unofficial member.
05:45And Zach, you know, people mistook him for just a rock singer.
05:47Zach's a hell of an emcee.
05:49But Pharrell heard it.
05:51And he said, I want to be a part of it.
05:54I want to do something for it.
05:55We were like, yeah.
05:57He wants your email address.
05:59We sent it.
05:59And then Kawan Prather, who's in his camp.
06:01Kawan is, for people who may have heard his name before,
06:03KP the Great is a DJ now.
06:05But he started his career as a DJ.
06:07Then he went on to A&R, such as Outkast, TLC,
06:10a guy you may have heard of called Usher Raymond.
06:13So he's a brilliant, beautiful, genius, you know, music-minded.
06:16And he's a friend of mine.
06:17And he was just like, man, this is the kind of thing I want to happen.
06:20So he works with Pharrell's camp.
06:22And as Pharrell was kind of traveling around the world,
06:25they were in the studio one night.
06:26And Pharrell said, pull it up.
06:28Let's do it.
06:28And KP, KP, you know, was like, he's going to do it.
06:31And he didn't lie.
06:32It got done.
06:32So we're in a huge appreciation.
06:35We have a dope lyric video we just dropped to it.
06:39But there is going to be a real video, too.
06:41The lyric video is absolute art, though.
06:43So I encourage people to go on our YouTube and check out the Just Money lyric video.
06:46Because until we bring you the real video, it's amazing.
06:49Yeah, I saw the clip that you put up on IG.
06:51And I was like, yo, this is major.
06:53Because that made it even make more sense to me.
06:56Because of the viral kind of, like, you know, alliteration of it and everything.
07:01I mean, Yankee and the Brave.
07:03Ooh la la.
07:04I mean, DJ Premier, hello.
07:06Like, come on.
07:06We talking about losers.
07:07Come on, man.
07:08Come on, man.
07:08I mean, it's just crazy for you to have this.
07:10And it ain't a side project.
07:12It's your project.
07:13But, man, for people of that caliber to be like, Pharrell, I want to get in.
07:17Premier, let's work.
07:19Like, you got to be looking like God smiling on me right now.
07:22Oh, man, I've been looking at, like, Run The Jewels has been together eight years.
07:27Elle and I have been making music there for 10 years.
07:29So he produced my Break Above Background album, Rap Music, Rebellion After People's Music
07:34that was put out through Adult Swim.
07:36And then we went on and, you know, people, the story's all over there that you can check it out.
07:40We went on to become Run The Jewels.
07:42So for eight years, you know, this is, I thank God for the last 10 years.
07:45I thank God for all of it.
07:47Because if I hadn't stumbled early in my career, through no fault of my own,
07:51and all accountability on my own, if I had not stumbled, I wouldn't have appreciated
07:55the situation I'm in.
07:56So I see it the other day as Killer Mike, Shea's husband and one half of Run The Jewels.
08:01And when I go into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I'm going to be proud to have went in there
08:04with my friend and ally and partner and comrade, who we started this journey together.
08:09And I don't see us having to stop it until we got a lot more gray air.
08:13You know, I want to be the ACDC of rap music.
08:15I want to be in diapers on stage.
08:17You know what?
08:18That's what they say when Roscoe Flatt say, bless the broken road that got you here.
08:23You know what I'm saying?
08:24Like all of them potholes that got me here.
08:26Bless them.
08:26Absolutely.
08:27You know?
08:28Absolutely.
08:28Let's see here.
08:30Out of Sight, that's my joint, too.
08:32Like, I mean, you know what I like about y'all production, too?
08:35I know the sample, but it ain't the obvious sample.
08:38Like, y'all will take the sample and flip it and do some things with it.
08:42I'm like, yo, I know that record, but that ain't that record.
08:45Yeah, it sounds like the old DLC record.
08:48It's just a slightly different.
08:49It's just a difference.
08:50But the feeling, and as it best explains Run the Jewels, like, we love Run DMCs.
08:55So we perform as two MCs in black denim and a DJ.
08:59But we add elements to our show that we brought from rock and roll that we love as well.
09:04You know, we love Outkast and the Beasties, but we don't take their sound.
09:10We take inspiration from their art, and we create our own sound and energy.
09:14So I'm glad that our music feels like that.
09:18You know what I'm saying?
09:19And I'm glad the sound gives you and invokes that feeling, because what we are is a product
09:24that's one of the golden ages of hip-hop, and it's fun for us to, in our sound, to do the
09:30things that we heard our heroes doing.
09:32You know what I'm saying?
09:32Without, you know, just swag swiping.
09:35But that feeling, that's what we want you to have, you know?
09:37No, it's, I mean, and it's also dope, too, because I heard y'all talking about one of
09:43the interviews when you were talking about a few words for the firing squad.
09:47And y'all was like, take off the capes, take off everything, you know, all of the superhero
09:51antics, and you can be real.
09:53Absolutely.
09:54And the superhero antics is what I want to talk about, because it seems that y'all do
09:58all of this craziness in the record.
10:00It's like a movie.
10:01Exactly.
10:02Because you're like, I'm like, they in the car, they busting shots, they doing this,
10:05they doing that, you know?
10:06And then y'all also are like the unicorns of this thing, as far as hip-hop, because y'all
10:12don't have to, like most dudes out here rapping, trying to live it.
10:15Y'all get to go in the booth and create this crazy anarchy, and then walk out and be on
10:22CNN and on Fox, you know?
10:25Yeah, it's interesting.
10:27Like, you know, you kind of, as artists, you get it out.
10:30If you're a visual artist, you get it out on the canvas.
10:32If you're a recording artist, you get it out on audio.
10:34Sculpture, you get it out through forming a sculpture, you know?
10:37And I don't, the artists who are trying to live it, a lot of them have lived it, a lot
10:40of them aspire to live something.
10:42But it's like the blues, man.
10:43You know, some bluesmen with Stagger Lee and really killed the man.
10:46Some bluesmen with Stagger Lee.
10:49The thing is, Bun B told me a very long time ago, when Run the Juice first start kind of
10:55popping, he said, you know, Mike, Outkast had a freedom that Aval and MJG and UGK did not.
11:03He said, we make amazing music.
11:04We've had amazing careers.
11:06And with that said, the world has decided simply who we are.
11:09That's who we are.
11:11And there's nothing wrong with that.
11:12Outkast audience always trusted them to go on the journey to discovering who they were.
11:18So me and Elle don't always know who the hell we are.
11:20You know what I'm saying?
11:21But I appreciate that our audience following us as we discover.
11:27Because what we're doing is we're creating a world that could be.
11:32And it's not unreal.
11:34Because when someone climbs a mountain and they throw this up at me, and on their Instagram,
11:39you're seeing, hold on, this kid's on a mountain throwing up RTJ with a lawyer rightfully wins
11:44a citizen money owed from a corporation, and the first thing he can do is stand next and
11:49judge and throw up RTJ.
11:51That means that the messaging in our imaginary world of being advocates to one another and
11:55loving one another and fighting like hell, even though you don't look alike, is pouring
11:59over to the real world.
11:59So I'm honored.
12:00You know what I'm saying?
12:01I'm very honored that we're allowed to.
12:04Because your audience has to allow you to.
12:07You know what I'm saying?
12:07And which is why I love the groups that I love that we're allowed to, and which is why
12:12I value those that stayed the course that they were allowed to as well.
12:16Because, you know, we need it.
12:17You know, rap groups need to exist.
12:19Because to be frank, Black folks need to see you can get along with one another.
12:23And you can get along with other people in the case of me and Elle.
12:26And that's the beautiful thing about this world that we've created.
12:29It's based around a very real friendship.
12:31You know, our friendship is not anything contrived.
12:33Like, I love him.
12:34He's a white New Yorker who loves hip hop.
12:37As much as a Black Southerner.
12:38We grew up at the exact same time.
12:40We're a month apart in birth.
12:43We know all the same influences.
12:45And we interpret them together.
12:47And it was made for a more powerful thing that I ever could have thought I had out of
12:51a solo career.
12:51And I'm very grateful for it.
12:53Man, when you think about, I know when you talk about leaving Morehouse, and you like,
12:58Yeah.
12:58You like that break the family hard.
13:01And I'm like, yo, I'm sitting here like, when I left fam, my father was like, you gonna what?
13:06Yeah, man.
13:06Yeah, yeah.
13:08You gonna be a DJ?
13:09You what?
13:10And I'm like, nah, dad, you don't understand?
13:12He's like, boy, I ain't sitting all the way down there for you to do proms.
13:15You ain't gonna do no be no DJ, no prom.
13:17No, man, you're not going to hit you with the prom.
13:19You're not going to go down there and do the A-brain dance.
13:23Hey, man, a working class Black dad will make your dream feel this small.
13:28Now, doesn't mean you should dream big.
13:31But just saying, they came up in an environment where they had to do it.
13:35They had to be leaders of their family and their clan.
13:37So when you go to talk about I'm a DJ, a dance, or a singer, rap, a talent.
13:42I felt your pain when you was like, he was like, you know, Morehouse is like, that's
13:48like Harvard to Black people.
13:50And to walk away from that?
13:52And I'm sitting there like, oh, my father was like pissed.
13:54He was like, nah, bruh.
13:56No.
13:56Oh, man, my father said, he said, son, you know they call a starving artist for a reason.
14:01Exactly.
14:03Years later, he sent me an article in which I was talked about as a leader.
14:08And he said, you know, I never didn't believe that you could rap.
14:12I know you could, you know, I know you could rap.
14:15You know, my dad's a 70s dude, so he talks in rhyme anyway.
14:18He said, what's happening, Jack?
14:19Ain't nothing slick.
14:20Jack, like, he talks.
14:21So naturally, I probably pick up the ability to put words together from him, right?
14:25Slick.
14:25But my mom was purely, exactly.
14:27My mom was purely an artist, though.
14:29So she let me know to chase your art until the end.
14:32You know what I mean?
14:32So with him, he said, but he said in his article, he said, son, this is a leader.
14:37And he said, I'd leave you in a room full of kids.
14:39When you were four or five, I'd come back, you'd be telling those kids this is what we're
14:42going to do.
14:42And they'd be listening.
14:43He said, I've seen you as a leader your whole life.
14:45And that's what I was afraid that you wouldn't miss that.
14:48And by the time I got on the phone, we were both crying because I understood then that my
14:52father did not believe in my dream.
14:53He believed more in me than I even knew I was at the time.
14:57You know what I'm saying?
14:58And I was already an organizer at the time.
14:59So I knew I knew how to organize them.
15:01I knew I could get people together.
15:02But I didn't understand what true leadership was.
15:05I didn't understand my importance to the greater community.
15:07And now I do.
15:08And I appreciate him for that.
15:10And for the people who we oftentimes, I got this in my comments.
15:13It was funny because you just said, what would Morehouse be like?
15:16Well, Morehouse liked going to Harvard.
15:17But people saw Harvard as something better sometimes, right?
15:21And I'm trying to keep playing, talking about us.
15:23And one of the guys hit me on the comments.
15:25And he said, so what would it be like if a black child got accepted into Harvard?
15:29I said, almost as good as going to Morehouse.
15:36Morehouse can't get everybody in there.
15:38Yeah, yeah.
15:39Second choice is Harvard.
15:40Exactly.
15:43So I want the people, all that to say, people who went to HBCUs, I'm very proud of people
15:49who went and didn't finish.
15:51Don't worry, they got online courses now.
15:53I'm definitely going to end up getting my degree from Morehouse before I get off this
15:57earth.
15:57And I'm proud of the young basketball athletes in particular that are choosing to go to
16:02Black College and University because you only have to sit out a year.
16:05It beats going to Europe and Australia.
16:07Absolutely.
16:07And, man, it'd be lit.
16:10It ain't nothing like a Tuskegee homecoming or a FAMU homecoming.
16:13You mess around and put them stars in them gymnasiums and on that field, bruh.
16:19They'll love you all the way to the pro.
16:21And then they'll ride out with you.
16:23I love it.
16:26I love it because my pops put that in me the same way.
16:30And the way you are an activist or raptivist or holitician.
16:34I told him, he a holitician.
16:36That's what he is.
16:37You know, the way you speak and the way it's been instilled in you is the same way that
16:44I went on this radio path and left school, but still I'm able to do what I'm doing and
16:50have that voice of my father and have that voice of my parents, that education that we
16:55got.
16:55And you being in front street, it's like there's moments in hip hop that we look at.
17:00Easy E at the White House.
17:03Yeah.
17:04LL Cool J back on the Grammys when he used to rap the rules.
17:07And he's like, Christ for the house, put the ballots in.
17:10I'm like, hip hop is big, you know?
17:13And so when you look at these levels and you look at like you standing there with my FAMU,
17:18my FAMU, sister, Keisha, the last bottle, and your city is burning and you as Killer
17:26Mike is like, we got to calm the city, Mike.
17:30We need you right here on national TV.
17:33Everybody looking at you like how that big moment right there has set you up.
17:37You've been set up with that, not just from Morehouse, but from a stock from your family.
17:41Yeah, yeah, yeah.
17:42It's my granddaddy and my granddaddy.
17:43You know, to move much is given, much is required.
17:46So how did that feel in that moment, talking to your city?
17:50Oh, I wasn't supposed to be there.
17:52I was, and people know me.
17:53You kept saying it.
17:54I do not want to be here.
17:56Absolutely.
17:57I have nothing good to say.
17:58Absolutely.
17:59Because that was the truth.
18:00I got to start from a place of truth.
18:02I was out, Tiff and I, and a man named Noel Khalil, who's a developer out of here, all black,
18:08bought a 50-year-old restaurant called Banquet Seafood, and we're launching.
18:14We've relaunched the food truck.
18:15We're going to begin the demo and building of a new building, and we're going to build
18:21a restaurant franchise, and it's going to be based on something a woman had for 30
18:26years of her life, well, 50 years of her life, and the oldest recorded business on
18:30Banquet.
18:30So we're very proud.
18:32I was out with the truck.
18:33I had Nori.
18:34Nori had come up from Miami, so I was feeding him and his crew at the truck.
18:37We went to the studio to meet him there.
18:39So we're at Tiff's studio.
18:40We're feeding rappers.
18:41I'm playing ambassador like you're supposed to do.
18:44And just when I drank enough with the homies and let them eat some fish and took a puff or
18:51two and said, okay, it's time to go, guys.
18:53You know what I'm saying?
18:54Tiff pulls up, and he says, hey, this is going on, and the mayor would like you to come
18:58down, and I want you to come down with me.
19:00And as quoted by him in the GQ, I told him everything from absolutely not to that's not
19:06I, M, F, and B, job.
19:08That's not I.
19:13No.
19:14Well, you know, because I understand why people are in the streets protesting.
19:18I understand why people are angry, and I even understand why violence can happen.
19:23The point of my eight-minute and 40-something-minute speech, 40-something-second speech, almost the
19:27amount of time that it took to kill George Floyd, that officer, to kill him, the point
19:32of my speech was to simply say Atlanta is a fort for Black people.
19:36It is not perfect by any means.
19:38It has to get better.
19:39It has not always been perfect, but it has always been a place filled with opportunity
19:42for Black people.
19:43And there are other cities like that.
19:44Throughout the South, there's Daytona, there's Tampa, there's St. Pete, there's Tallahassee,
19:48there's Suskegee, and Montgomery, and Huntsville, there's Charlotte, and Columbia.
19:53I don't know if any are economically powerful in Atlanta, simply because we have three of the
19:56most Fortune 500 companies there.
19:59So it's a lot of economy, a lot of economy.
20:01So if we burn it to the ground, and they do it like they did Detroit in the late 60s, you
20:06don't have any city left, then poverty and warfare and violence ensues.
20:11But if you keep your fortress a fortress, and make sure that organizations like Park
20:17Kids, which is Bankhead Sifu's neighbor, can help families eat every day, meet their nutritional
20:22needs, wash clothes, have housing.
20:26If you do that, you get to make sure that the working class and Black middle class can
20:30still sprout out of the city every few generations, as it should.
20:33Every four years, we should be doubling up new homeowners, things of that nature.
20:36So my appeal was to Black people saying this.
20:39You know, that was my appeal.
20:40And bigger than that, you know, it was now after this moment, though, where you're righteously
20:46angry and burning and hurting stuff.
20:49Plot, plan, strategize, organize, mobilize.
20:52When I say hurting stuff, I don't just mean buildings, because they tore up two Black restaurants.
20:56One of the Black restaurants is Dave's Philly, owned by a young Black man.
20:59Well, what does that matter, Mike?
21:00He had insurance.
21:02Well, he took his insurance money, or whatever money he got, he got his windows replaced,
21:06and then he helped other businesses.
21:07Well, what does that matter?
21:08He's a business.
21:08Well, the young lady, who was the mother of Rashad Brook's children, who got killed in
21:14that Wendy's, a car was bought for her and her children.
21:18He paid for half that car.
21:19So that's why destroying Black businesses doesn't make sense, because within weeks of
21:25his business being burnt, or I mean, the windows and it being almost torn to the ground, he
21:30had to then be a philanthropist.
21:33He didn't have to, chose to be, and not only help other businesses, but help this woman who
21:37just lost her man and her children's father, whereas a lot of us in our anger would not
21:42have thought of her.
21:43You get what I'm saying?
21:43So my thing was saying that we have to plot, plan, strategize, organize, mobilize.
21:48Now that we've identified the problem, now that we've identified how we can help, who
21:51are we going to strategize with, who are we going to organize with, and how are we going
21:55to mobilize?
21:56Because that happens at the end of plot, plan, strategize, organize, mobilize, you genuinely
22:00have the ability to capitalize.
22:02I was on the phone with Ice Cube yesterday morning, and this contract for Black America
22:06that I think is a beautiful idea he's put together.
22:09He came to me and said, hey, what are your ideas on this?
22:11It gives me an opportunity to now go to the ground people who are working in Atlanta,
22:15you know, people like Brother Kalanji, people like Brother Gary Davis, people like the sister
22:18over at the New Georgia Project, and say, what is it we need that will instantly change
22:22us?
22:22And then now report that back to him.
22:24If that's not the connection, if that's not the way we're doing it, then it's never going
22:28to fully work, because that's what it happens to say.
22:30You don't organize, you know, for the people without educating the people.
22:33So that's all I really was telling people, no, that I'm with you.
22:37I understand it.
22:37But after today, we have to plot, plan, strategize, organize, and mobilize in order to capitalize
22:43or all this is for now.
22:44I love the fact that when you kept talking about that, you know, and the sequence of
22:49it, because the first three are imperative.
22:51I mean, you have to, you can't just run out and be out.
22:53You can't just meet on the battlefield.
22:55You got to.
22:56Well, you can.
22:56You can.
22:57But you want to, you want to win the battle.
22:59So it's less effective if we're coming up with the plays at the 50-yard line.
23:06So plot, plan, and strategize first.
23:10Like, let's be about business first.
23:12First.
23:12Before we move, let's find out how we're moving and where we're moving.
23:17Absolutely.
23:17So we'll get it done.
23:18And the people who were repeating, I've seen people with shirts with it on.
23:22And I was like, yo, I'm telling you, the first three are essential.
23:26You know what I'm saying?
23:27Essential.
23:28Essential.
23:28If you, if you, if you look at, if, if organize, the same people who organize street gangs can
23:35organize, organize 501c3s, can organize a radio station, can organize a television station.
23:44The ability to organize is special.
23:47The ability to get humans to plot something out, to plan it out.
23:50And when you strategize, that means you're with other people that may have an opposing
23:54view.
23:54See, you need a person in the room to say, but you ever thought of, or from my perspective,
24:01you need that.
24:03But, but a lot of times we don't want to have that.
24:05We just want to get straight to the organizing and mobilize.
24:07So you organize a bunch of people that you agree with, right?
24:09And then you mobilize.
24:10And then someone like my manager, Will, comes up and he sees you organizing against circumcision
24:18of boys and he goes to family dollar and he makes a sign that says, I appreciate my parents
24:23cutting off the tip of my pee-pee.
24:25Like, and then you're pissed because, because maybe, maybe you didn't think, that was a true
24:33story.
24:33He did.
24:33You have to, you have to, you have to say to yourself, you know, well, well, what about
24:39the, the pro circumcision of the crowd and what are they, you know, or you don't, but
24:43you have to organize to be effective.
24:45All jokes aside, plot, plan, strategize, and organize, and mobilizing is one of the smartest
24:50things that we can begin to learn to do because on a very local level, in terms of elections,
24:54we can have a greater effect on the greater good of our community.
24:58I forget my brother's name right now, but he has the Florida, on the restoration project
25:03for felons there.
25:04I get his name and I get it back down to you.
25:05His brother is absolutely amazing.
25:08He's gotten, I think, a million voters, their right to register back.
25:12So imagine how that dynamically changes the politics and forth.
25:15If you organize that vote, that radically changes that state.
25:19So they say you should get all done with the individual fingers, all right, but that
25:23fits, collect.
25:24That fits, oh man, that fits, man.
25:26Come on, talk that talk.
25:28Wait, I saw you involved last night with the tribute to John Lewis.
25:33Yeah.
25:33They ran that last night, Celebration of a Hero.
25:36And they talked about you holding up the sign, matter of fact, thanks to John Lewis.
25:42And they were doing it during Pharrell's Happy.
25:44And it was interesting when they talked about he was protesting at an early age about the
25:51library, his library card.
25:54And he was protesting that he couldn't go to the library.
25:57And I was talking to somebody about that protest spirit that's in him.
26:02I mean, you talk about a child that felt, I have a voice and I know what's wrong.
26:06So when did Mike Render realize he had that voice?
26:10I, well, this is the thing about me.
26:15I, um, what, what's, I didn't say God has probably been chasing me a long time.
26:21You know, like my dad said, he leave a room and come back and be, you know, like this kid
26:25has already figured out how to get the other kids.
26:27I won't ace a cake at the same time.
26:29You know, by the, when I was in high school and my brother, my old, um, who was formerly
26:34Chris Jackson, when he started protesting the national anthem, I organized my, me and
26:39my homies, we not going to stand with national anthem.
26:41My principal went insane.
26:43You know what I'm saying?
26:44So I was out of, at about 14, 15 years old.
26:48I was invited to go to the black teams for advancement national conference, which was
26:52a self-organized group of young men.
26:54So schools in Atlanta named for black people.
26:56I went to Frederick Douglass.
26:58Our rival was Benjamin E. Mays.
26:59Both of these allotted black men in my community, but the rivalry starts, the fight starts, guns
27:04come into play.
27:05Boys could hurt each other.
27:06So the older boys are like, we about to start sitting with knuckleheads down and making
27:09them figure out a piece between each other or we don't beat them up.
27:12You know, I want to get beat up by a 12 grader, but I snuck to their conference.
27:16It was at Morehouse in the chapel.
27:17And when I got back, the counselor told me, well, if you don't keep coming to our meetings,
27:23I want to turn you in for cutting school.
27:24I said, but you asked me to go.
27:25He said, they don't know that.
27:26And by then, you know, I thought I was thugging.
27:29So I ended up having to go.
27:30And I liked the organization.
27:32Within a year, I was national spokesman for that organization.
27:35Within another year, I had joined an organization called Kids for Change, or that became Kids for
27:40Change.
27:40And the late Jean Child Young was a board member.
27:43And she believed, like Alice Johnson, who was my direct mentor and who's directed that, you
27:47don't organize on the behalf of children.
27:50You organize with children.
27:51You don't organize on the behalf of people.
27:53You organize with them.
27:54And I've been an organizer ever since.
27:55Since I was 15 years old, I started organizing.
27:58And when I got a record deal, so about 10 years as an active organizer in some capacity, whether
28:02it was organizing a vote, helping labor unions.
28:05You know, and I'm talking about in the middle of still selling weed.
28:07You know, I'm still a, I still, you know, by date, I'm at Morehouse.
28:11I sell a little weed to the homies.
28:13And I still might have to get 50 old people out to the polls.
28:16You know what I'm saying?
28:17Yeah.
28:17So, but by the time I became a rapper, I understood you can't be an organizer on a
28:21weekly basis.
28:22I became more of a mobilizer, helping magnify messages that are out there and getting people
28:26to help them.
28:27It's an incredible thing, man, to be dope behind the mic and also behind the podium.
28:32It's just, it's an incredible thing because we don't see enough of it.
28:35We, we, we glamorize the jump shot.
28:37We, we, we, we glamorize a lot of things, but to be able to, to be able to, I was telling
28:42people to be an orator.
28:43I mean, when you have a Kennedy or you have a Barack Obama, somebody who's just well-spoken,
28:48who can speak with passion and can move people with their words, it's hip hop.
28:54Absolutely.
28:55It's hip hop.
28:55It's poetry.
28:56We're griots.
28:57You know, I was talking to Corday the other day and he was like, man, you said griot and
29:01that blew my mind because Q-Tip was just telling me I'm a griot.
29:04Yo, he was like, you need to name your next album, man.
29:07And it's like, yo, yeah, man, I'm so, I'm so much a fan of his, man.
29:14Cause he got so much to say.
29:15And I told him, I'm like, dog, he said in this, in this COVID, you don't want to be putting
29:19music out cause it's just different.
29:21And I was like, bro, you have a young voice that people need to hear.
29:25I don't care if it's a full album, whatever you got to say, you need to get out there.
29:29And he, and I mean, I feel, I get that same spirit as a young Mike.
29:33Yeah.
29:34Thank you, man.
29:34I like that kid a lot.
29:36I like him.
29:36I listened to a lot of, a lot of, I got a 13 year old and 18 year old.
29:41So I hear a lot of young music, but the music that's coming out.
29:46Cause I ask him, what you listening to?
29:48Oh, that's jamming.
29:49You know what I mean?
29:50So I don't really have a filter.
29:51Like, um, I interviewed George Clinton and he told him one time, he says, if I hear something,
29:56man, um, and I don't know if I like it now, I just ask my grandkids, what, what you think
30:00about this?
30:01So I, I, and that has kept him young and dope.
30:04Uh, you know, my whole life in terms of his musical taste.
30:07So for me, man, I let young people tell me.
30:09So of course he's somebody I got to put on to.
30:10I really think he's dope.
30:11So if you hear this, man, salute to you, brother.
30:13Keep doing what you're doing.
30:14Yeah.
30:14Oh, he'll definitely hear it, man.
30:16Cause I, I really rock with him.
30:17I told him he was going to walk across that Grammy stage when I heard it.
30:20Yeah, absolutely.
30:21And he, he, he, when he got nominated, he was in straight up as, as 100 as he could be.
30:26He was on IG crying like, yo, man, this ain't supposed to happen.
30:30It feels good, man.
30:30It feels good.
30:31Man, we got nominated and you know, I've, I've won one.
30:35I've won one.
30:36The whole world.
30:38Yeah, the whole world.
30:38But our, our, we got nominated for our, our song on Baby Driver with Danger Mouse and,
30:45um, and, um, and, and Elle, I mean, and Big Boy.
30:48And I really wanted to win.
30:50Like, I don't even front.
30:51I was like, I want to win.
30:52You know what I'm saying?
30:52Ain't no wrong with that.
30:54Yeah.
30:54Hell yeah.
30:54I want to win.
30:55Yeah.
30:56You know, Elle's like, you know, man, I thought I was cool, but when we didn't win, I got mad.
31:02I can't even lie.
31:03So for me, I look forward to walking across that stage because the first time I did and
31:07I didn't go, Jay-Z was like, we protesting.
31:10They're not showing him probably.
31:11And I was like, I'm with you, Jay.
31:12And I didn't go.
31:13And I, we ended up, I think on sunset partying and, uh, getting, getting, getting too stoned
31:19and drunk.
31:19And I woke up in a hotel with a woman.
31:21I bet you made that Roots Jam session though, didn't you?
31:25Yeah.
31:27Now, now I also saw you involved with the, uh, the Stockton on my mind.
31:31Uh, yeah.
31:32Yeah, with Michael Tubbs.
31:33Yeah.
31:33Yeah.
31:34That's incredible.
31:36Activism at any age, man.
31:38That's an incredible story.
31:39I mean, father incarcerated, you know, I mean, his mom took care of him, single mom home.
31:44And 26 years old, youngest mayor, black mayor of Stockton.
31:49It's incredible.
31:49What I found, what I found impressive too, a lot of times we hear single, single mom homes.
31:54What I found impressive though, was the mother and the grandmother, because I was, you know,
31:59my, neither one of my parents raised me, my grandmother raised me.
32:01There is a foundation and a solidity, um, that comes, black families are matriarchal, you
32:07know, and I, I don't, you know, even, even, even in patriarchy, even where you have places
32:12where your big daddy or your, you know, your papi is very honored.
32:15There's still a shared power with the women in that family.
32:18And I was very proud to see that because, you know, there's oftentimes a negative connotation
32:23on single parent, but his mother, although his father wasn't there, she was a strong
32:27praying woman and the grandmother was too.
32:29So he's just from good stock and you can tell.
32:31And when you're from good stock, you tend to not lean into your thoughts and insecurities
32:36or, or things you're absent and you tend to enjoy what's present and you can tell he enjoyed
32:41the love.
32:41You can tell he enjoyed much like John Lewis education.
32:44And he enjoys helping Stockton become more than a, um, middle-class or working-class city
32:50that is a offshoot of the Bay that he, he really has, is going to grow that city into something.
32:55And I'm honored by not only him because his story isn't exclusive, but by brothers like
33:00Terrence Colbert up in Johnson, South Carolina, who started as an intern at Stankonia.
33:05I remember asking him, why do you want to be a producer, Terrence?
33:08It doesn't, you know, just why do you want to be a producer?
33:11Um, I want to be a producer so I can make money and go home and change my hometown.
33:15Now he got nominated for a Grammy for big boys record.
33:17He still, he still does decent production, but it's more important work to our people has
33:21been becoming mayor of Johnson, South Carolina, which is, uh, per capita,
33:24America's possibly the world's greatest peach producing, um, town.
33:29He's bringing industry there, helped want to grow the community, became the youngest
33:33city council person, then ran for mayor.
33:35So although he never got rich to change the town, he has richly changed that town in terms
33:40of what young African American kids and working class white kids, people see in terms of black
33:45leadership.
33:46I think it's amazing.
33:47And so it shows that Michael is an exclusive and that if properly used, local politics is
33:53all-inclusive and we should be running and winning elections as much as we can to try
33:57to help, you know, our community and the wider community.
34:01I love it.
34:02I love it.
34:02I mean, you know, of course I told you, I was looking forward to chopping it up with you.
34:06I don't want to, I don't want to keep you too long, but I do want to-
34:09I'm here as long as you need me to, it's you.
34:11Like once I saw it was you, I was like, what do you need me to do?
34:13It's all, it's all, I wrote this verse down because this was so powerful.
34:18It's crippling to make you want to lean on the cup of promethazine.
34:22Lean, yeah.
34:24But my queen says she need a king, not another junky flunky rapper fiend.
34:28Rapper fiend, yeah, yeah, yeah.
34:30But friends tell I could be another Malcolm, he could be another Martin.
34:34She told her partner, I need a husband more than the world, need another Martin.
34:38Need another Martin, yeah.
34:39Bruh, Shay put one on you on that one.
34:42I swear to God, her friend just left.
34:44Her friend is like her sister.
34:46My wife has all brothers, she doesn't have sisters.
34:49So there are two, three friends that are literally like sisters to her.
34:52And her friend, Sha'Carri, told her that, like, you know, Michael could be a Malinois.
34:55And she just turned in.
34:56My wife, she's deeply country, she's geeky.
34:59Her family's from South Carolina, she grew up, her dad's side, she grew up in the project.
35:03She's in Savannah.
35:04So she feisty.
35:06You know, she turned her friend before you didn't know.
35:07It was like snapping her fingers, like, you know, I need a husband more than the world,
35:10need another Martin.
35:12And it was cold.
35:13And I don't mean in a bad way, but it was that it was Felicia Rashad Cosby show cold.
35:19You know what I'm saying?
35:20You know what I mean?
35:20It was like, hey, don't feel my husband's head up.
35:25He's lost the ambitions of leadership because his life is at line.
35:31We know he's a leader.
35:32That is going to come to him, but we're not going to rush the show.
35:35I hope my friend said this 10, 12 years ago, you know, back when people were saying I was
35:39crazy for comparing myself in any way to saying, I remember doing it all hip-hop articles saying
35:43the things I say could get me killed.
35:45And they're like, oh, I want to kill you.
35:46And there's some people in there like, Michael, protect your life.
35:48You know what I'm saying?
35:49So my, yeah.
35:51And on the other part was real because I had, you know, back when I was coming through
35:55Florida, hanging out, I was having too much fun.
35:57You know what I mean?
35:58I, you know, I have to realize, you know, my mother's an artist and an addict and, you
36:02know, addiction and things like alcoholism running a lot of working class, especially
36:07black families.
36:08Not good for us.
36:09And I took a dance with the devil in terms of drugs and, you know, with pills and with
36:15lean and things of that nature.
36:17And, you know, I remember Bun calling me, Bun hitting me like, you know, hey, little
36:21bro, you've been out in Houston for about a month.
36:23You even had a lot too much fun.
36:25And I need you to know what this stuff is.
36:27You're drinking it.
36:28You know, it is essentially heroin in your body once it gets in there.
36:33This is why the constipation comes.
36:35And listen, he was answering questions before I even asked.
36:37And I never, I never, I just never got back into it.
36:41You know what I'm saying?
36:41But that part was very real because my wife had said to me, you know, in matters of drugs,
36:46that's just the reason people see me get in the gym every day.
36:48You know, I need, I don't need a junkie or a flunky to another guy or whatever phase.
36:52Like, I need a man.
36:53I'm not going to accept nothing less than that.
36:56So we live, we live in a very similar way, you know, to my grandparents.
37:00I am the chief executive officer.
37:02My chief is, my wife's the chief operating officer.
37:04So anything you ask me, just like Wheeler would say, let me go check with Vin, you got
37:08to check with Shea first, you know?
37:10But that's even, that's even you putting them up on game because there's a lot of cats out
37:14there and be like, don't ask me about my job.
37:16Don't tell me what I could do.
37:17Don't tell, but you're real.
37:19Yeah.
37:21She got to see your six.
37:23You know what I'm saying?
37:23Yeah, that's a lot.
37:24That's all the time.
37:26That's exactly, exactly.
37:28You know what I'm saying?
37:28So when I, when I heard that line, I was like, bruh, like how many people don't have
37:34that?
37:34I mean, look at Martin Luther King and all he did.
37:37Coretta, it was a, took a strength for her to let him go.
37:40But I knew her to tell, when she was like, I want you here.
37:44Yeah.
37:45We wouldn't even be talking about Martin King if it had not been for his wife.
37:51And what I mean by this, my wife wears a shirt where I do Martin and the rap.
37:56She has a shirt with all their wives.
37:57So you get, you know, get Coretta, Jean, like with all their wives on there.
38:02Because in our marriage, it's recognized, just like they're recognizing Kevin and Cush,
38:06when you sell statues of men and women together, but I am nothing, I am literally nothing without
38:11my wife.
38:12I am incomplete, half of who I should be, not fulfilling my purpose as God saw fit.
38:17So, you know, I have to, I have to make sure that that balance stays.
38:21I'll have it no other way for me.
38:23And for people who don't want to have or need that, that's fine.
38:26You know what I mean?
38:26I don't need my wife paying half my bills.
38:29I'm going to take care of that.
38:30What I need her mind free to do is to manage the things we're building.
38:34You know what I'm saying?
38:34I'm, you know, I'm, I'm going to make sure she don't have to change her oil.
38:39She makes sure I don't have to cook my sweet potato and our, our marriage, our marriage
38:43works out fine.
38:44That's a great balance.
38:45That's a great balance right there.
38:47Yeah.
38:48I want to know, I know ain't no hate in your heart.
38:52I ain't never seen it ever.
38:55But when you see Kanye's name tossed into this thing, don't in the back of your mind,
38:59I know you ain't got to be a martyr or nothing, but in the back of your mind, don't
39:02you think, damn, I need to be in there at least to change the narrative of this race
39:08or at least to add some stuff.
39:10I have done my part twice.
39:12I tried very hard to get Sanders elected in 16.
39:16I tried very hard around this time.
39:18Now, what I'm trying hard to do now is not be a part of a national conversation that will
39:23take away from the very real race we're having.
39:25Local.
39:26Um, I, yeah, I don't think any third party member right now or anyone entering the race
39:31now, honestly, has a chance.
39:33So that's no shade on Kanye or the libertarian lady who I happen to like if she wants to
39:38abolish the ATF.
39:39I don't see a reason, you know, that we need alcohol, tobacco, firearms agencies.
39:43I like my alcohol.
39:44I should grow my own tobacco, leave my firearms alone.
39:46But, but, but I think that the bigger conversation is for black people.
39:52What is our contract with America?
39:54Like Ice Cube is talking about what a candidate, no matter what their party going to do for
39:59us in our community and to the wider community that hears that that's not saying that the
40:03wider, I'm saying wider, not wider.
40:06That's not saying that you guys aren't involved.
40:08It's just that if the African-American community that's been depressed through no fault of their
40:12own for years and years and years to things like redlining, taking of agricultural land
40:16back, unfair rental rates and things of that nature, if they're allowed to grow and prosper
40:20and there's, there's new barbecue restaurants, new strip malls, new things in their community,
40:24you get to use those communities too.
40:26They have to come up with more competitive prices in your community.
40:28So it helps everyone out.
40:30So my thing is who, who's going to give us that?
40:33And if, if, and while we're figuring out who meets some of our demands, let's get behind
40:38the people who don't sing and dance, but they're doing an amazing job dancing between
40:42that aisle, getting work done.
40:43Well, who are those people?
40:45Nina Turner is amazing.
40:47She was a surrogant for Sanders.
40:49If you guys have never heard her speak, go listen to her podcast.
40:52She just had Cornel West on there.
40:54Check out Nina Turner.
40:55Nina Turner is who I feel should be president of the United States in 2024.
40:59I'm going to say that now.
40:59I'm going to say that every interview I get an opportunity to, because in talking about
41:03Kanye West, which is nothing wrong.
41:05I love Kanye.
41:06I love his aspirations.
41:08No matter if you believe him or not, that young man has aspirations and we all should dream
41:12so often.
41:12And we all should have a right to.
41:13We all got that.
41:14Absolutely.
41:15It's just that in matters of our business now, you know, I like my cousin that get drunk
41:20and sing it and say all kind of wild shit at the funeral, but in matters of business,
41:24who is the best person to handle our business in DC?
41:27And for me, Nina Turner would be that person right.
41:30That's incredible.
41:31Bro, I, like, like I said, when I, when I see that, like, I don't, I don't think any third
41:36party candidates going to have a shot, but not right now, but it's not now, not now with
41:42the way we sit in this current state.
41:44But when I was sitting there and I'm like, man, the opportunity to, to, to move the conversation
41:49by being involved.
41:50I'm like, if we did have somebody who had a little bit more to say, or a little bit
41:56more, you know, kind of oomph to it.
41:58And I was like, man, I'm like, if you was in there, like, not, not that Shay is going
42:03to be like, listen, uh, no.
42:06I mean, she's told me, my wife just said, you're not going to straddle a fence on this
42:09kind of stuff.
42:10She takes it as seriously as I do.
42:11So she's just like, when it's time for you to evolve into politics, she says, okay, well,
42:15we know at some point, you know, you're going to, she's like, your interest won't let
42:19you not be.
42:20You're singing dance.
42:21You're not happy.
42:21You're on a business.
42:22You're learning how to be a businessman.
42:23You're not happy.
42:24She said, so I know you're going to be happy at public policy shit, but that's not going
42:28to be until that's what all you do.
42:30She's like, I'm not going to have you distracted from doing a good job on the behalf of people
42:34who grew up like us and our grandparents, our parents.
42:37I'm not going to have you distracted by doing music and having to go DJ or a party.
42:41I'm not going to have you distracted by the business is still going.
42:44She says, you're going to be ready to when you do.
42:46And I've, you know, I've made that commitment to grow my, my career in business to the, to
42:50the point that I feel like I've apex, apex to peace or built a plateau for myself
42:55that stands firm forever foundation.
42:57And then I get an opportunity to, to serve the public, you know, man.
43:01And I hope I'm serving the public well now.
43:03I think you're serving them well, man.
43:06And I got to tell you, I'm proud.
43:07I heard you working out too.
43:08So I'm glad to see you.
43:09Yeah, I'm at 37 pounds down.
43:11We both fight it, man.
43:13We both fight it.
43:13You looking great.
43:14You, you the whole, I've been doing keto.
43:16I've been on keto since February of 2019.
43:20Really?
43:20And so I'm down 123 pounds right now.
43:24So you got to send me, you got to send me some, um, some recipes.
43:28You got my information.
43:29All right.
43:29Yeah.
43:29I'll send them.
43:30Okay.
43:30Yeah.
43:30She'll shoot me.
43:31Yeah.
43:31Let me, yeah.
43:32I'm, I'm interested in, I'm interested in trying it out.
43:35Yeah.
43:36I'll definitely do that, man.
43:37And it's a pleasure to talk to you family.
43:40When you, when we get, when we get through with all this world's fluid, everything, we got
43:44to get you down here and do some, do some incredible things, man.
43:47Yeah.
43:47I'm coming down there looking for some properties and shout out to Kenny Russian, man.
43:50He's a real estate guy down there.
43:52Kenny's a good dude.
43:53Um, yeah, but I'm coming down there.
43:55Yeah.
43:55Yeah.
43:55Kenny's a great guy.
43:56Make sure you, make sure you add that, man.
43:58Kenny deserves a shout out.
43:59That's what's up.
44:00Absolutely.
44:01Yeah.
44:01Yeah.
44:01He's one of the real ones down there.
44:03I can, I can say it's a lot of shites in real estate I've seen, but he, um, that brother
44:07was about his business.
44:08You know what I mean?
44:09Don't let the Cartagans and snakeskin fool you.
44:11That, that, he earned his.
44:13He didn't just burn nobody for his.
44:14But I, um, I'm going to be looking, we'll be looking for a house down there in the next couple
44:18years.
44:18So you'll see a lot more.
44:19Okay.
44:20All right.
44:20Hey, uh, this is Mike Render, AKA one half of RTJ.
44:26You know, run the jewels.
44:28Y'all cop that RTJ for everybody out there.
44:31Be clear.
44:31Uh, but this is Denise's only boy.
44:35And this is the one standing right there to her side.
44:40So brother.
44:40Absolutely.
44:42Love you, man.
44:43Give the family my best.
44:44I definitely will.
44:45Peace.
44:46All right now.
44:46Peace.
44:47Peace.
44:48Peace.
44:49Peace.
44:50Peace.
44:51Peace.
44:52Peace.
44:53Peace.
44:54Peace.
44:55Peace.
44:56Peace.
44:57Peace.
44:58Peace.
44:59Peace.
45:00Peace.
45:01Peace.
45:02Peace.
45:03Peace.
45:04Peace.
45:05Peace.
45:06Peace.
45:07Peace.
45:08Peace.
45:09Peace.
45:10Peace.
45:11Peace.
45:12Peace.
45:13Peace.
45:14Peace.