Killer Mike Tells The Churn About His Brian Kemp Meeting

Full disclosure: We’re fans of Killer Mike here at The Churn.

And we understand that some people were upset last week, and may still be today, at the Run The Jewels rapper for sitting down with Georgia Governor Brian Kemp.

We have thoughts. Also, Killer Mike has thoughts. We called him and he shared them. Here’s the main quote we think the word-murdering Atlanta star wants everyone at-ing and subtweeting him to hear:

“I’m too busy doing the work to say anything.”

For our part, being familiar with Killer Mike means we are fully aware of what the man actually does. Usually, rappers are only known for saying things, and creating visual representations of what they rhyme about (often with borrowed money). We believe rappers tell the truth.

This may break your heart: Most rappers are liars.

Killer Mike is quite different. First, as a rapper, he’s very, very good, as in Top-5-Good. Many of your favorite rappers who are not Killer Mike want none of the smoke of having to share a song with Killer Mike.

But an interesting development is that Killer Mike might now be just as nationally famous for his outspoken political views, policy positions and stances on social justice, community involvement and Black entrepreneurship as he is for being an amazingly good rapper.

Because of that, and because social media is full of people who truly believe contrarianism is the new thought leadership, Killer Mike has become something of a Twitter target.

He isn’t bothered by that. Mike has certainly been covered positively and negatively plenty of times. That’s what happens when you lead. He welcomes opinions that differ from his own. That’s why we like him.

But on Thursday, September 10, Killer Mike told us he’s got a new rule, on some Bill Maher shit, on opening a dialogue with anyone looking to debate.

“If you meet me at the job, we can talk as we work. I’ll be in Four Seasons Apartments giving away food free today. So you’re welcome to meet me and talk to me there, doing the work.

“You can meet me at Hosea Feed the Hungry. I’ll be there doing the work. You can meet me at PAWKids, where T.I. and I are dedicating food and space to feed the kids and parents on the west side. You can meet me at the SCLC.

“You can meet me at any of them places. I’m working.”

Yeet.

That should be enough, but you probably still want to hear more about Mike and Kemp’s chit-chat. From what he told us, it sounded way less problematic than folks seem to have assumed.

So FYI, here are four main points Mike says he discussed with the man Stacey Abrams ran against:

“In the Black community, our girls are going to college and graduating. Our boys are not. They have a higher dropout rate.

“It is my wish that poor, working class and, in particular, Black boys fill the jobs that are going to be needed to build Georgia in the next 20 years.

“We talked about barbershops. I talked about my wanting to get more young men and women in the trade of barbering and having certain restrictions taken off and having certain, um, incentives added in.

“What I wish to see is a return to trades programs into high school. So if you’re 16, like my son — who told me, ‘Dad, I don’t want to go to college; I want to be an electrician’ — he’s on course now that when he graduates he’ll go to the IBEW, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, to start an internship so that he can be an electrician or go to Atlanta Area Tech.

[ED NOTE: Atlanta Area Tech was renamed Atlanta Technical College in 1997. Killer Mike with the “Old Atlanta” flex.]

“Last week, they said more businesses are coming to Georgia. That means more building is coming to Georgia. The men that are going to lay the concrete, lay the tile, put the brick and mortar up, the men that are going to be the framers, those men should look like us! We’re 35 percent of the state. Both men and women. So I wish to see that.”

[ED NOTE: The most recent Census data says the number is 32.6%, but Mike spoke to the governor last week and we didn’t, so he could certainly have better info than us.]

“If a young man in his twenties gets a woman pregnant and that woman is in her twenties, she’s going to be subsidized by county, state, and federal money. The boy is usually left with a child support debt and wondering which way to go. And if they’re unskilled and untrained, they’re in double jeopardy of going to prison.

“My suggestion is we start a program that if a young man or young woman has a relationship in their twenties, they have sex and a child comes about, that we, instead of putting young men directly on child support, offer them an option by saying, ‘You can go to trade school for 18 months to two years for free, on the state, so that you can be a palpable father, potentially husband and cornerstone of the community, or you get saddled with child support. We’ll cover your child support for two years while you do school.’”

“From the governor’s side, his wife’s big concern is human trafficking and sexual trafficking. Of course, I found it astonishing that it’s in the national history, a national story, that 39 children were rescued from that here. And I talked to her about helping to have a bigger platform because this is the home of the missing and murdered children. My life has been shaped and crafted by children being murdered and missing in this city.

“So on a statewide level, in whatever way I can help, I’m going to continue that fight in the name and honor of the black children that died in the early eighties when I was a child. Not only the black children, but in their name. This is why I fight that fight.”

“Instead of treating juveniles as murderous, felonious thieves and locking them up, they’re finding that children that are engaging in behaviors that get them sent to prison are usually faced with some sort of trauma. What the courts are doing, instead of just locking away children, is identifying the traumas and triggers in children’s life and aiding and assisting in those, so you don’t get criminals and recidivism and crime.

“Chief Judge Asha Jackson in DeKalb County has a prototype program that steers people away from going to prison over the course of a year to two years, much like Next Level Boys Academy and Gary Davis down here. That prototype is being used now to create a similar thing for the entire state.

“Hopefully what we’ll start to see is, instead of black boys being locked up — and poor and working class boys being locked up, private prisons and such — we will start seeing courts that deal with the trauma. And we’ll start seeing restoration, where we’re putting out competent human beings versus releasing men with $25 and a bus ticket.

“I have two friends serving life in jail that are telling me the horrors of what the jail system is like. I told the governor part of my mission is to not only see restorative justice, but to see better treatment of adults.”

Hopefully this is helpful to anyone concerned that Killer Mike went into Brian Kemp’s office.

This is not someone who is known for pandering to politicians. This is a brilliant and proud resident of Atlanta, whose journey from making guest appearances on Grammy-winning OutKast songs to being an advisor to Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has happened in plain sight.

While most rappers stick to rapping, Killer Mike takes action. When he speaks to power, he speaks with actionable ideas that could have lasting effects on people who don’t often find real representation in front of government officials.

And Mike will be the first person to tell you he’s fine with opposing viewpoints and Twitter takes that call his beliefs into question. He’s even willing to respond and open up the debate, he says.

“But in terms of talking over the internet, I have absolutely nothing to goddamn say because I’m too busy working.”