words Justin Monroe photos Shane Nash
Word to Juan Valdez, Michael “Killer Mike” Render is about his grind. While most rappers can’t even show up on time to masturbatory interviews, the 31-year-old native of Atlanta’s Adamsville section is out personally distributing CDs to mom-and-pop music shops. You remember how Nas said the rap game reminds him of the crack game? Well, Killer learned how to hustle hard from his mama, the esteemed Niecy, and the same way he was out on the block for rocks, he’s putting in work to see that he squeezes everything he can out of his rap career. It may seem an odd move for a major label artist, but the industry hasn’t exactly been putting food in his kids’ mouths.
It was 2000 when Mike auspiciously hooked up with OutKast and appeared on their Stankonia album before signing to their now-defunct Aquemini label. As if trading in a career in the dope game for a rap hustle weren’t good enough, he then won a 2002 Grammy with Big and Dre for his appearance on “The Whole World.” Sadly, his underappreciated 2003 Aquemini/Sony debut, Monster, failed to see the same multi-plat stats as ’Kast, reaching gold status only with combined domestic and international sales. He and Big Boi (now his label boss at Purple Ribbon) decided that Sony wasn’t doing enough for them, and as a result they decided to move, and his phenomenal follow-up, Ghetto Extraordinary, was shelved. Purple Ribbon relocated to Virgin, and while a label compilation, Big Boi Presents Got Purp? Vol. II, has dropped, in addition to Bubba Sparxxx and Sleepy Brown albums, Mike remains on deck. Diddy and Jermaine Dupri have made offers, but Killer won’t be low-balled.
While Mike remains an employee of Purple Ribbon, he’s taking it upon himself to keep his career alive. He’s a boss in his own right, pushing his crew of Southern lyricists, the Grind Time Rap Gang (S.L. Jones, Nario, Big Slim, Young Pill, Da Bill Collector), on his Grind Time Official label. He’s put out a series of underground albums, including That Crack, The Killer, and now the double-disc banger I Pledge Allegiance to the Grind. His next major album, 16 in the Kitchen, is expected to drop by year’s end, but fuck if Mike knows who’ll partner with Purple Ribbon to release it. While labels parry and politick, Mike is doing him, making sure you don’t forget this killer’s face.
It’s been three years since you dropped a major label album. Why does your name still mean something to people?
You will never see this word on the front of a t-shirt, but I got integrity. Everybody don’t have that. Bun B has that, Ice Cube has it, Ice-T, Pimp C, Ball & G. It’s a certain authenticity, and when a motherfucker speak, people are like, “This is the person I want representing me,” the nigga who understands what it was like to grow up in the hood, who knows what it’s like to be considered second-rate but know you’re just as smart as the next motherfucker and all you got to do is work hard and prove yourself. We supposed to be the voice for young niggas in the hood. We have everything in rap, except leaders. I accept my responsibility for the words that I say. People know I ain’t gonna bullshit them, not no time. When it was printed that I said something derogatory in reference to one of the most famous black women ever [Oprah Winfrey], hell, it was the people that stood up for me and said, “Hold on, the jury’s still out. We gotta see what our man talkin’ about.”
Unable to drop your second album, you’ve essentially experienced the music industry version of blue balls. How painful is that?
I sat back and asked myself why the fuck haven’t I went crazy, because I know people really expect me to. I haven’t stopped working on music and putting out underground albums. Even though I haven’t been on any huge tour, I’ve been on a town tour, places like Swainsboro, Georgia, and Meridian, Mississippi. I’m not waiting for Big and Dre to do nothing. I’m not waiting for Purple Ribbon or Virgin. I know I’m a major cat, I got a major deal, but with that I got to work to keep myself exposed.
Are you about ready to run up in the Purple Ribbon and Virgin offices and start flipping furniture?
Do I think there’s a helluva lot more they could be doing marketing, promotion-wise that they’re not? Yeah. But I chose to sign with them, so I have to take some personal accountability and get up on my shit myself. I’m not going to wait ’til it’s promo time and see if somebody can come out with me or if I can get some love. That’s why I’m always at the DJ conferences, always in the streets grinding, always at record stores. I would do a show in motherfuckin’ Kill-a-nigga, Arkansas. It don’t fuckin’ matter. I gotta grow an audience. We ain’t missin’ no meals.
Yes, you are a rather large black man. I happen to know you’re quite slick with the ladies, too. Who taught you that a fat dude could have swagger like that?
[Laughs] Heavy fuckin’ D and my uncle Ant!
Hev wasn’t just fat. His lazy eye helped pave the way for Biggie.
[Laughs] The Fat Boys were my homies when I was like a real little kid, but I ain’t see the girls lookin’ at them like the girls looked at Heavy, and I was like, I gotta be like him. I used to see Heavy movin’ his shit, man. Comin’ up in Atlanta, you couldn’t get no pom-pom if you couldn’t dance. Really, I saw a lot of cool fat cats when I grew up. I mean, in certain cities you go, women equate bein’ a big dude with gettin’ money, and if you ain’t got no stomach you ain’t gettin’ no play. If you big and you fly, you definitely handling your shit, ’cause everything cost you extra.
Not only are you big and black, you’re also named Killer Mike. How many white people do you think that name’s scared off?
Man, a bunch. And my thing is, shit, that’s they slang. That’s like us saying “dope.” They say “killer” all the time. I swear, white people, you cool, I was just trying to impress y’all!
You’ve snapped on rappers for abandoning music to act. Your friends Bizarre from D12 and Bone Crusher have both gotten into reality television, doing “Celebrity Fit Club.” Is that better or worse?
I value my friends. I don’t give a shit what they do, as long as they ain’t doing any little boys on videotape at Michael Jackson’s place. We’re in an era now where everybody’s not going to do five, six million records, and at the end of the day, these are family men who have to feed their families. And it’s encompassing the world of entertainment. If you look at Flavor Flav, Bone Crusher, and Bizarre, they all have a character that’s perfect for television. Rap can’t hold them. Rap is just a part of their repertoire. The rest of their shit is visual and entertaining and stimulating in a different way.
But don’t you find it a little depressing or embarrassing to see legends like Flav and Rev. Run doing it?
Flav ain’t hurtin’ nobody. He providin’ entertainment for people, and he helpin’ a whole lot of girls who would’ve never made it in Hollywood get on TV. “Run’s House,” that’s a great show! You got a bunch of men in hip hop who have not grown up with family, so they have no idea what family values are in a real way. Run’s showin’ niggas how to have fun being married, how to deal with being a young hip hop father with hip hop kids.
Would you ever consider doing reality TV?
On one hand, my very close friends do it and I love them, but on the other hand, if you asked me to do it, it would offend every sensibility I got, like, Motherfucker, what the fuck do you think I am? I’m an emcee, so I judge the world from that perspective. I ain’t gonna let no nigga yell at me on TV! I won’t cry for nobody! Fuck outta here!
Andre 3000 is one of your favorite rappers, and you criticized him for not rapping anymore. Maybe it’s just me, but hearing his handful of new verses feels bittersweet.
Even though you appreciate him really digging in himself to give you a verse, the sadness comes when you long for him and the only place you can look is where you at in that moment or back. I don’t give a fuck what anybody say, Dre giving you these new verses he does, he really is doing it for the fans. Dre always said he wanted to be like a comet, not a star. Comets, when they come, it’s an event.
I understand that, because he owned a percentage of you from the Aquemini days, Dre’s disinterest in the music business led to a conflict between you two. Can you explain?
To me, if you’re going to profit off of anything I do, you have to actively promote or market me. I love Dre as a human being because he gave me a record deal and saved my life but you cannot make money off me if you not goin’ to do the basics. That’s not even just with Dre. If I find out a fuckin’ street team member has made money off me and has not put up a fuckin’ poster, I have a problem. And to be honest, the fact that me and Dre are not doing business no more is the best thing for our relationship. It was interfering with us being admirers and respectful musicians with one another.
You mentioned earlier that rap lacks leadership. Were Kanye West’s Katrina comments more powerful than his campaign to stop rappers from calling each other gay (no homo)?
I think Kanye’s comments on Katrina was a sexy thing to say. George Bush don’t like black people? George Bush don’t like poor people! Well, he likes his poor Mexican gardener, his poor Cuban restaurant worker, his poor nigger slaves in the penal system working for pennies on the dollar. But Kanye is not going to say “poor” because Kanye wears couture Ralph Lauren suits. The minute Dr. King walk up and say, “This ain’t about race, this about po—” Pop! Pop! Pop! He was laying there dead before “poverty” even got out of his mouth, because what you’re doing there is fucking up a system of institutionalized servitude. When you start talking about issues of poverty, you go beyond race. Kanye polarized a whole community of poor whites that got killed in Alabama, the Gulf Coast and Mississippi.
I have to ask, why do I see you gracing chat room peons with your cyber presence?
I get tired of motherfuckers saying, “I am the hood. I am the streets. I speak for the people.” If you go on these sites, ain’t nobody talking to these people. I’m on all the sites because I just give a fuck that people care to care. Three years ago, when I got my record deal, my first question to marketing was, how do we get directly to the people? Nobody could answer the question. There’s only two ways to answer that question. Go where they going: Internet sites and the streets—lifestyle shops, music stores, and barbershops.
What’s the funniest comment you’ve seen written about you?
“Killer Mike is a fucking fat lard-ass. This song is tight though.”
To talk to Killer Mike, or to order his music, visit myspace.com/grindtimeonline or call 404-392-2145.
