eve of release Michael, Killer Mike’s first solo album since 2012, he told me early on that he was “half of the greatest rap group in the world, alive.” His work with Run the Jewels and his partner El-P were always on his mind, even as he took this solo detour.
“I’m on a journey,” he says of the LP, which is out on June 16. “I had to go through the desert and not be with my friends. But it was so I could grow and come back as a stronger MC.”
The journey involved separating the Michael Lund-born artist from his so-called Killer Mike “persona.” He likens himself to a favorite grizzled X-Men: “Behind my Wolverine mask is Logan. It’s behind the mask.” michael Answering some of the same questions as the Logan-centric X-Men story, about “why is that guy grumpy, why is he so protective of his friends: because he’s getting a knock on the door.” He’s close to the Zoom call camera. “I wanted to give people a deeper understanding of the character of Killer Mike and show them this guy named Michael.”
Those obstacles he mentioned included the death of his mother in 2017, a topic that Mike explores in depth on his outstanding album, MOTHERLESS. “My mom died,” he raps, “My grandma died/I’m honestly depressed and scared.” As he explained to me when the song was released and again, “I never said ‘ My mom died’ line, I didn’t say it until the record was made. So if I never write a record, I never say those words. So art drives me and allows me to grow.”
He added: “You have to pick out the scar and let it heal properly. Like, I don’t want to make ‘MOTHERLESS.’ Hip-hop has a romanticism around pain, but, yeah, I have to show my pain.”
He is careful to explain that this Michael is not a character: “I rap differently. Like KRS-One taught me, it’s about style. You have to master style… I’ve grown and developed style. I Don’t want to give you a replay of Killer Mike from Run the Jewels just on a different beat. I need the push. I need to feel personal. I need the feel to talk to you.”