Killer Mike Quotes

I feel worn down as a human being who has to constantly justify their existence to other human beings because I'm a minority

I have searched all night and day for new and better words that could express my feelings and fear for the people of this country. I found no new words. I only have no hope-filled insight to deliver. I only have this warning to all Americans: Whatever this country is willing to do to the least of us, it will one day do to us all.

God really exists, I tell you like this: It resides inside. And anybody tell you different, Just selling you religion, Tryin' to keep your ass in line.

Ronald Reagan was an actor. Not at all a factor, Just an employee of the country's real masters. Just like the Bushes, Clinton and Obama, Just another talkin' head tellin' lies on teleprompters. If you don't believe the theory, then argue with this logic: Why did Reagan and Obama both go after Gaddafi? We invaded sovereign soil, goin' after oil Takin' countries as a hobby paid for by the oil lobby, Same as Iraq and Afghanistan. And Ahmadinejad sayin' they comin' for Iran.

I love Dr. King, but violence might be necessary; Cause when you live on MLK and it gets very scary, You might have to pull your AK, send one to the cemetery.

People tend to think of gentrification in terms of race because it's presented that way, and I think it's presented that way because in poor cities that's what's really going on. Beyond that, I think it's presented that way as a way for the people who are really pushing it to make it just a black problem, so people don't care.

When you say you want to talk about racial justice, that`s not the same as I want to do something about racial justice. Saying I want to hold police accountable is doing something. Saying that I want to take money out of politics, big money, is doing something.

What I am is an encourager. I encourage all who deserve freedom to fight for that. And if you can't win by yourself, then find other people to be in solidarity with.

Being a black rapper is like being a Southern, socialite woman: You're always worried about appearances.

I'll always push for what I believe in. That's what you're supposed to do. If you're an American, you're supposed to be part of the political process, especially if you've been denied it.

This is jazz, this is funk, this is soul, this is gospel This is sanctified sick, this is player Pentecostal. This is church front pew, Amen, pulpit, What my people need and the opposite of bullshit.

I would rather have a candidate that`s cohesive in bringing people together from different ethnic backgrounds but around the same policy than I would a politician that jumps and stumps in different rooms and has a different story every time.

Most rappers are black men. If you're a black man, you owe something to the community that you came from. If you're rapping about the community that you came from, and you're romanticizing parts of it for the entertainment of people who don't look like you, you certainly owe something to the community.

Bernie Sanders has done a great job of, social media black kids know about him. Young black people progressives know about him. Through barbershops and barbershop tour that we have been on, we hit three barbershops a day. People know about him.

I learned to fly planes at fifteen years old because one of my teachers thought I'd be a better pilot than rapper.

I`m lucky in that in my character in hip hop is me. I`m Michael Render. My character is Killer Mike. But the truth that I sing in my raps align themselves with the policy of Bernie Sanders.

The futile and exhausting existence of a purgatory-like law enforcement system.

I don't trust the church or the government, and anything the church or the government tells me I assume to be a lie or a conspiracy, until proven true.

The motivation to me is to make money and not be dependent upon the shallow pool called the entertainment world or the rap world or the hip-hop world.

I like his consistency, because Bernie Sanders talk - it boils down to the American people. His one thing is the American people.

51 years ago, when Hillary Clinton was working on the Goldwater campaign, Bernie Sanders was getting locked up for my rights. 50 years later he`s talking about doing something and not talking.

I just need the junkies and the liars and the thieves, I need the pimps, prostitutes and pushers out in the streets. That's where I'm seeking God, cause that's where He found me.

As an artist, that's our job - to be with you in times of celebration and when the world is kicking your ass.

I love art. It really changes my mood and wakes me up.

I'm just seeing as I grow older, and hopefully wiser, that a lot of things I see from a race perspective are class problems too, so I should be advocating for all.

I would say is that kids know about Bernie Sanders and they`re off the radar.In the same way kids knew about Twitter before their parents did.

I would challenge more hip hop artists that are rapping about what it`s like to be real and the social ills that we face, if you aren`t backing Bernie Sanders, I have to question your credibility in terms of do you mean the songs you`re writing.

Will I die slain like my King by a terrorist? Will my woman be Coretta, take my name and cherish it? Or will she Jackie O., drop the Kennedy, remarry it?

Our feelings can be hurt, but you can take a yoga class, you can pray, you can play some basketball - you can figure out things for your hurt feelings.

I reached the point in my life now that I understand as human beings we've all done some very horrible things to other human beings, and at some point, I came to grips with the fact that whoever murdered my friend is now an adult, and all I can truly hopefully pray for is that in murdering my friend it bettered their life. And I don't mean that they gained things, but just that they grew up, they regret their decision, they found a place of spirituality or God or whatever people call it.

My rap comes from a sociological standpoint rather than picking a particular side or dogma or ideology. I just want people to be free to do what they want, as long as they don't harm others.

It's drones over Brooklyn, you blink, you could get tooken, And now you're understanding the definition of 'Crooklyn.' Pigs on parade, but bacon fryin' and cookin', Cause kids' tired of dyin' and walkin' round like they shooken.

When you talking about funk music you just talking about a collage of a lot of different types of music. They used strings, they had brass, they had vocalist.

When Bernie Sanders came along, and I liked his tweets and I read more about him, researched him more, I decided I like him and his policy, even more than just I like another guy in the Democratic Party, I really believed in it. And when you believe in something, you get out and work for it.

I rap when I'm rich. I rap when I'm broke. I rap when I'm bullshit in the street. I rap about only having one woman now. If you can look at a continuum of my career, it's been an evolution of a real dude. So when I say I take my wife to the strip club, we're there, at the five-dollar joint. More than anything, I want people to take away that I'm not mainstream act.

I'm not one of those artists who doubts that they made dope-ass records. From the first record to now, each record has gotten better. I started dope, so I've just gotten doper and doper and dopest and super dope.

I would just encourage everybody to just talk your opinion more, allow other people and fight for other people to [express theirs].

Being an adult, you've already suffered enough from your own mistakes, and the world, to come to this as a humble human being. So it's not like, "I'm going to do the right thing because it advances me," as much as it's like, "I'm going to do the right thing because this puts me closest to the dream I had as a 10-year-old kid."

My grandmother taught me, you believe in a politician, you get out there and work for them. So, that`s what I`ve been doing.

I like making mini-movies rather than just three-minute, place-the-champagne-here-for-sponsorship videos.

I think the way the country has changed in part because of the presidency of Barack Obama, I think in part because of what we`ve - the violence that we have seen on our cell phones and our TV sets over the last couple of years. I think Black Lives Matter has helped to force these issues. Women like Sabrina Fulton. We`re having a different conversation in this country right now about race and what it means to really understand your experience is and my experience is.

I have a 20-year-old son, I have a 12-year-old son and I'm so afraid for them.

The older I get, the more of an anarchist I become, and I don't mean in a punk rock way.

I've been a sinner and a saint. If you've been a saint all your life, it's pretty easy to sleep at night. If you've been a sinner, you're just as comfortable in it. I've walked both sides of the fence, and there are times I can't sleep and I wake the engineer up and get it out of me. But it usually doesn't pour all the way out. I have to come back and have the conversation that you usually try not to have with yourself. That's how it gets resolved.

I think that`s the obstacle, because once black people hear Bernie Sanders policy, it`s almost instantaneous they switch. Hillary is good enough, but the policy of enough is enough that we`re going to radically change thinks really seizes with people.

If I go all the way politicized, I become a zealot who's not allowed to have fun with the people and the community that raised me. But if I go the other way, I become an ignoramus who isn't properly qualified to speak on my community's behalf.

I don't think I'm more politically-based as much as socially-based. My grandmother died on February 29th, and she kept all of my magazine and newspaper scraps, every interview. I've been in the newspapers since I was about 15 - not for rapping, but for real substantive stuff I was doing in the community, organizing around gang violence in the schools. So I had already made my grandma proud before I was on TV. I've always been who I am.

My family have always supported my rap - and they know I love them when I rap about them - but I'm just Michael Jackson to them. They care more about me. I express my love for them in a much more personal way on this record. It's about our conversations; my fear, and their advice. I know my sisters are gonna hear "Willie Burke Sherwood", which is named for my grandfather, and cry. I used to do music for me, because my ego needed it, but now I'm doing music for my family and friends who helped me become a rapper.

Ninety-eight percent of blacks voted for President Obama. That means these people are tied to that political party in a way that's different from other groups of people. Certain rappers always want to represent the Democratic side because they know that's safe and that's what represents their community. I tend to just do what I feel is right by all people.

As entertainers, you're afraid [about] loss of income - but if other people start going to jail for free speech, then we've lost this great thing that America is, and I'd like to keep that.