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A couple of weeks ago, Stephen Colbert hosted André 3000 on his Late Show and gave André the Colbert Questionert. Last night, Colbert also had Killer Mike on as his musical guest. I like the idea that the Colbert show is now some kind of forum for Dungeon Family members. Fingers crossed that he has Witchdoctor and Cool Breeze on next week.
But that’s not really why Killer Mike was on Colbert. Mike just had a very eventful week. Nine days ago, Killer Mike won three rap Grammys — a clean sweep of his nominations — and then was handcuffed and detained by police. The details are still a little mysterious, but a security guard reportedly claimed that Mike shoved her.
First on Monday Mike appeared on The View on Monday and discussed the incident and the day after, which saw his 21-year-old son undergoing a kidney transplant surgery for which he’d been waiting three years.
“I think the backstage was overcrowded,” Mike said about his arrest. “I think the winners were were exuberant. And I think security got a little overzealous. And that’s all. It’s water under the bridge for me. But I’d like to say all of my heroes have been in handcuffs: Malcolm, Martin, Mandela, Medgar. I don’t… I walked out with the same dignity and respect that I walked in with and I would just implore people to just take that from it. Don’t dwell on the bad stuff. And the next morning I spent three hours by myself you know, you’re waiting and the police said, ‘Oh my god, we’ve never gotten this many phone calls. People are gonna go protest, we’ve gonna have to move you.” They’re panicked…”
The rapper and activist also explained to co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin why he wasn’t explicitly endorsing Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential election:
“We get caught up in the soap opera of federal elections and that’s fine, but if you are concerned with the federal election, and you don’t know who your city council, your wardsman, you don’t know who your mayor is, and you don’t have a good list of state representatives or governor, then you’re just a part of whoever wins the Super Bowl, the fanfare. … In terms of nationally I’m just kind of doing what my grandfather said, staying out of White folks’ business and watching what happens. I’m going to see what happens. If there’s a candidate that pops up around September, October, that needs a push that’s really, policy-wise is good for us that’s going to jump up, but for right now I don’t want to be involved in the soap opera because I’m worried about what’s going on in Atlanta on the hyper-local level.”
MICHAEL is Killer Mike’s first solo album since the beginning of Run The Jewels and after The View he stopped by Colbert to perform the deep cut “Exit 9.”
On MICHAEL, “Exit 9” features the R&B singer Blxst. On Colbert, Mike performed the song with the Midnight Revival, a gospel-style singing group. Mike removed his combustible onstage energy from the performance, dedicating it to his grandmother and rapping while sitting on a stool like an acoustic singer-songwriter. But Mike still brought huge authority to the stage, as he always does. Watch that performance below.
MICHAEL is out now on Loma Vista.