On the eve of releasing MICHAEL, Killer Mike’s first solo album since 2012, he tells me early and often that he is “one half of the world’s greatest rap group, living.” His work with Run the Jewels and his partner El-P are close on his mind, even as he takes this independent detour.
“I went on a journey,” he says of the LP out June 16th. “I had to go through the desert and I didn’t get to have my friend with me. But it was so I could grow and come back a stronger MC.”
That journey included separating the artist born Michael Render from what he called the “character” of Killer Mike. He likened himself to a favorite grizzled X-Man: “Behind the mask of me as Wolverine is Logan. This is behind the mask.” MICHAEL answers some of the same questions as X-Men stories centered around Logan, learning “why that man’s so damn grumpy, why is he so protective of his friends: Because he suffered the knocks.” He leans closer to the Zoom call camera. “I wanted to give people a deeper peek into the character Killer Mike and show them the man named Michael.”
Those obstacles he alluded to included the 2017 death of his mother, a topic Mike delves into on the album standout, “MOTHERLESS.” “My mama dead,” he raps, “My grandmama dead/ To keep it honest, I get depressed and be feelin’ scared.” As he explained at the time of the song’s release and again to me, “I had never said the words, ‘My mom is dead,’ never said the words until the record. So if I never would have written a record, I never would have said the words. So art compels me and grew me.”
He adds, “You had to pick the scar and let it heal properly. Like, I didn’t want to make ‘MOTHERLESS.’ There is a romanticism around pain with hip hop, but yeah, I had to show my pain.”
He’s careful to explain that this Michael is not a character: “I’m rapping differently. Like KRS-One taught me, it’s about style. You gotta master styles… I’ve grown and I’ve evolved stylistically. I didn’t want to give you a replay of Killer Mike from Run the Jewels just over different beats. I needed to push. I needed to feel personal. I needed to feel like a conversation with you.”
