In the 00s Killer Mike was a powerhouse, the Southern answer to Ice Cube, a polemicist capable of rapping about both drug dealing and politics and doing it with equal credibility. He’s been a lifetime, eleven years, since RAP Music, the El-P-engraved classic that inspired the two to form Run the Jewels. Now, in the sixth titled album Michael, the rapper sings about mostly personal things, and especially about his mother and grandmother. He does so with empathy and a sense of proportion, while still using his characteristic raw vocal style.
The executive producer (and artist on some tracks) is that No ID who got their hands on Common’s 90s classics as well as more recent epics like 4:44 by Jay-Z e Summertime ’06 by Vince Staples. His maximalist take on music features high-pitched gospel and church organs, provided by Jason McGee & the Choir and Warryn Campbell, respectively. There are loads of guests, from El-P to Mozzy to Young Thug, and then welcome surprises like the rare appearance of Andre 3000 (alongside Future as well).
The celebrity guests, the sense of spiritual elevation, the old-fashioned soul samplings could alienate the sympathy of the “hardcore” fans, who have already complained about the somewhat clownish stage presence of Run the Jewels and miss the old Killer Mike, the one who in 2008 imagined killing a drug queen like Griselda Blanco.
Not to mention those puzzled by the political stances and still wondering how a Bernie Sanders supporter could endorse Georgia’s far-right Republican governor instead of siding with Democratic heroine Stacey Abrams. Well, the latter will have to settle for the exciting but decidedly vague Talk’n That Shit! in which Mike raps about “that woke stuff” over a dreary beat by DJ Paul of Three 6 Mafia and TWhyXclusive that recalls Tear Da Club Up.
Despite loaded bases, Killer Mike remains a punchy lyricist who carries Michael in uncharted territory. In Slummers, for example, he describes as a teenage romance that leads to an unplanned pregnancy. Mike raps about abortion as a matter of life and health and it might come as a shock to those who remember him to accuse Planned Parenthood of “planning abortions” in A Christmas Fucking Miracle by Run the Jewels.
“It’s obvious I’m at my best when I feel like the world is against me and I think I should never win,” raps Killer Mike in Two Days. It will be, but Michael is the record of a musician and activist at the height of fame and personal growth. Some will think the journey to the top of the mountain was more interesting than what Mike found at the top. But it’s all right for a man who stays High & Holy, done and holy. And haters be damned.
From Rolling Stone US.
