Over the summer, Killer Mike emerged as one of the most impassioned voices of reason in the hip-hop community following the fatal police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in August. He spoke out on Fox News and CNN, in an op-ed he wrote for Billboard, and in various interviews. By coincidence, as Stereogum points out, he and Run the Jewels partner El-P were in St. Louis on Monday night for a stop on their current tour. And the duo took the stage shortly after the grand jury’s decision’s not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson was announced.
Rising to the occasion, Mike began the show with a powerful, emotional speech in which he expressed his thoughts on the decision. “You motherf–kers got me today,” he admitted while getting choked up. “Because I have a 20-year-old son and a 12-year-old son, and I’m so afraid for them.” Mike continued those poignant words for the next four minutes, invoking the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., raging against the “war machine” mentality of the police force, and sympathizing with the anger felt by the rioters.
