Killer Mike Looks at His Past on Michael

Killer Mike would be the first to acknowledge that he has a talkative streak. In fact, the Atlanta-born half of hip-hop duo Run the Jewels put it this way in “Holy Calamafuck,” from 2020’s RTJ4: “One time in the big ol’ South / Lived a lil’ chubby kid with a big ol’ mouth.” The more things change …

Over the past decade, Killer Mike has mostly channeled his verbosity into sharp-edged social commentary on four dazzling albums with Run the Jewels. He takes a more personal turn on Michael, his first solo album since R.A.P. Music in 2012. Throughout the album’s 14 songs, Mike looks back at his youth in Atlanta. Although there are plenty of fond reminiscences here, there are a lot of painful memories as well: promising lives undermined by addiction on “Something for Junkies,” time wasted on the hollow promise of the thug life on “Yes” (among other tracks) and, most personal of all, the loss of his mother, Denise, who died in 2017. Mike honors her directly on “Motherless,” an unsparing tribute where he describes how much he misses her without steering away from the twistier turns in their relationship over the years.

Denise is also the unseen presence at the heart of many of these songs, as Mike reflects on what he learned from her—or didn’t. The way she encouraged him to live strong and achieve permeates throughout Michael, but as any parent knows, children absorb unintended lessons, too. On “Slummer,” it’s the unprotected sex as a teenager—who was the child of teenagers—that resulted in a terminated pregnancy that still tugs at his conscience. Killer Mike doesn’t shy away from the trauma of the streets, either. Though he was active in the drug trade in his younger days, he has long refused to glamorize that hustle, presenting it instead as a last resort in a society that has a long, evil history of marking out people of color for prison before they even lose their baby teeth. If the drug trade is a symptom of structural inequities, Killer Mike accepts responsibility for the choices he made to perpetuate the system, describing his hunger for status symbols on “Down by Law,” seeking atonement on “High + Holy” and celebrating having beaten the odds on “N Rich,” which also offers a reason for making Michael: “I know you love me running the jewels but these my n**** flows.”

It’s part of the Killer Mike mythology that he got an early break when OutKast featured him on a track from 2000’s Stankonia. Though he’s since transcended the Atlanta music scene, he hasn’t forgotten about it: Michael is packed with contributions from the likes of Andre 3000 and Future on “Scientists & Engineers,” CeeLo Green on “Down by Law,” Young Thug on “RUN” (which also features a spoken-word intro from Dave Chappelle) and 2 Chainz on “Spaceship Views.” They’re not the only guests: singer Eryn Allen Kane’s soulful voice features on three songs, and Mike’s Run the Jewels co-pilot El-P shows up on “Don’t Let the Devil.”

That last track is a point of contrast here. With all due respect to Killer Mike’s desire to go exploring in the far reaches of his formative years, he and El-P make each other better. Though there are more interesting tracks on Michael than “Don’t Let the Devil,” Killer Mike and EL-P are a formidable combination that is unmatched elsewhere. Though Mike’s flow can be strong on his own, particularly on “Something for Junkies” and “Two Days,” he’s often rhyming over gauzy R&B arrangements that don’t serve him as well as the hard-hitting production El-P cooks up for Run the Jewels. At the core, it’s a question of focus: Killer Mike feels these songs deeply and it shows, but different approaches here from producers, including No I.D., Cool & Dre and others, means the hooks aren’t always strong enough to keep listeners coming back.

Eric R. Danton has been contributing to Paste since 2013. His work has also appeared in Rolling Stone, The Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe and Pitchfork, among other publications. Follow him on Mastodon or visit his website.