Who's Punk: Killer Mike

Jan. 17, 2022 - Orbiting Punk Issue 1

Jan 17, 2022

Welcome to Orbiting Punk! If you missed it, I explained what the newsletter is all about here. This week I wrote about the punk in Killer Mike and about Avril Lavigne’s new single.
Thanks for reading! For questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to email me at orbitingpunk@gmail.com.

The Punk In - Killer Mike

The Punk In… is a series on artists who don’t make “punk” music but are more punk than most bands that like to say they are. In this issue, I’m looking at hip-hop artist Michael Render aka Killer Mike.

Mike’s music career has always been about killing your masters.

El-P, Mike’s rap-partner and producer in Run the Jewels, describes Mike’s worldview as “Black nationalism with a hint of socialism and armed to the teeth.”

He’s anti-drug even though he sold drugs at 14-years old.

He’s anti-police even though his dad was a cop.

He’s pro-local government and non-partisan but worked on Bernie Sander’s 2016 presidential campaign.

He’s anti-capitalist but proudly owns various businesses and properties in a theory he calls “compassionate capitalism.”

He’s pro-arms even getting into some controversy for sitting down with the NRA for a radio show (controversy is a common reoccurrence in his life).

He’s a complicated guy who thinks for himself and makes actions against his oppressors. It’s a part of him that makes his music more visceral, authentic and powerful than most punks.

Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, Mike has lived a life he would call “a goddamn BET movie.” Born in 1975 to a teen mom, he grew up during the height of the cocaine epidemic and would become entangled in the drug world throughout much of his young life.

After graduating high school, he would go to college at Morehouse, Dr. Martin Luther King's alma mater, before dropping out two semesters later to become a rapper. Thanks to like-minded people he met in college and his first mixtape, Mike would get the attention of CeeLo Green and eventually OutKast in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s.

Working with OutKast brought Mike into the mainstream when he was featured on “The Whole World” in 2001, winning a Grammy for Best Performance by a Duo or Group. He would release several solo albums that would make their mark on the Billboard charts and in a popular video game, Madden NFL 2004.

In 2011, Mike would be introduced to El-P by Cartoon Network executive Jason DeMarco to produce Mike’s fifth studio album R.A.P. Music. This album, an acronym for “Rebellious African People,” is where Mike’s punk-ness shows.

The track "Reagan" stands out for its chastising account of the Reagan years from the eyes of a young Mike. He witnessed the powers-at-be poison his communities with drugs and police crackdowns. It’s the kind of song that make you want to burn shit down.

It’s a track explicitly about black communities in the country, especially Atlanta. Mike calls out the power struggle at play between the haves and have nots, between those who control capital and those who do not. But he does it with wordplay.

“We brag on having bread, but none of us are bakers
We all talk having greens, but none of us own acres
If none of us own acres, and none of us grow wheat
Then who will feed our people when our people need to eat?”

He points out the value for money and material position but challenges those values asking, “What really keeps you fed?” It’s a direct social commentary on black communities and the shrinking population of black people in the agriculture industry. But also can be interpreted more broadly.

Who really controls food? The people or corporations?

He goes on to rap, “So it seems our people starve from lack of understanding.”

That’s punk as fuck. Killer Mike points out the proverbial rug that powers can pull out from under the people at any time. He challenges people to do better, know more and do something because you are hurting your neighbor by not.

He explicitly references the theory that US military planes which brought crack cocaine to urban and black neighborhoods inciting the subsequent “war on drugs” that allowed police militarization to begin. And like a PhD, he reveals the sinister motivations behind locking up drug offenders in double digits— modern-day slavery as made legal by the 13th amendment.

There’s nothing more punk than spotlighting slavery hidden in your backyard. People might hear this and think conspiracy or that doesn’t happen today. But in many states across the country, specifically Louisiana, prisoners work farms or operate oil rigs.

For Killer Mike, community is everything. Your masters, your oppressors, prevent your community from prospering and slowly drain the people of money and resources. To kill your master, the best thing the people can do is invest in your community.

Mike advocates for things like owning your own business, making your own money separate from corporations, hiring police officers from the community to actually serve and protect, not be robotic soldiers of fortune. And he doesn’t just talk about doing it, he does it like his historic barbershop.

So to sum up, Killer Mike is punk because…

He’s real. He lived through the things he battles and has based his convictions around those experiences.
He talks big game. He’s a damn good rapper and lyricist with arguably one of the best producers of the 2010s producing his beats. He uses that platform to point out the flaws of capitalism, American politics, police and so much more.
He’s a player. He’s investing in his community financially using oppressive systems in his favor. Beyond that, he actively engages in local politics and occasionally national discourse.

There’s a great deal more I can write about Killer Mike. His work in Run the Jewels is deeply political too and there are dozens of songs I could feature from their four albums (“walking in the snow,” “A Report to the Shareholders / Kill Your Masters”). He’s unafraid to say what he thinks is true, which has also led him to say some less-than-punk things too like his poor choice of word criticizing Hillary Clinton in 2016. But he’s always had the people at heart. It’s what informs his worldview and allows him to resist political stereotyping.

Killer Mike’s punkness - 9/10

Note: I got a lot of my info for this piece from a few excellent profiles of Killer Mike. So, thank you for the excellent storytelling and reporting from GQ and The Bitter Southerner.

Reviewing Spotify’s All New Punk Picks

I’m reviewing all the tracks on Spotify’s “All New Punk” playlist in order over on my Twitter. I’m going to post one a day so turn on notifications so you don’t miss a track that might actually be worth your time. Here’s a longer write up on the first track:

Love It When You Hate Me - Avril Lavigne

It’s a no-brainer to call this track corporate nostalgia-bait lacking charm or craft. I'm bummed because I kinda like Avril Lavigne. Of the early 2000s pop-punk acts, Lavinge's songs have aged the better than most. Tracks like Complicated, Sk8er Boi and even Boyfriend are just fun at least in a post-ironic meme way.

She falls into the “pop-punk revival” camp that feels less like a movement and more like a telegraphed marketing campaign. Travis Barker has been at the forefront of this and has defined the style sonically. It features new and old artists, which ya know, good for them. It seems like there is a solid population of teens who want to hear punk music again and not just nostalgic millennials. But it markets to both, especially in Avril Lavinge's case.

“Love It When You Hate Me” isn’t terrible but it’s not good either. Her other single, “Bite Me” sounds like an old-school Lavinge in the best ways. “Hate Me” seems like a teaser to how she’s updated her style or at least married it to fit artists like featured emo rapper blackbear. It mixes bits of trap with a traditional pop-punk song structure. The hook is everything in this song, but it’s just about as bland and uncreative as you can get lyrically. Juxtaposing love and hate, especially blatantly like this, has been done to death.

There are only two verses on the track, one for Avril and one for blackbear. Lavigne’s rhymes make blackbear seem like Nas in comparison. It could just be the rap vs pop-punk lyric divide but there’s plenty of new pop-punk with better writing, even coming from Lavigne's new stuff herself. The verse from blackbear makes the story of this song confusing too. I think it’s about crushing on someone you know isn’t good for you but blackbear’s verse makes it seems like there’s more history going on that’s never explained. It’s hard for a song to feel anthemic when the anthem is the only context.

The only semi-redeemable quality is the instrumentation and production, making it seem more anthemic. There's a goofy 2000s-style echo to Lavigne's voice that's kind of nostalgic. But it's paired with squeaky clean production that sounds like Ed Sheeran Trap.

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