Being a hip hop artist was Killer Mike's destiny.
"My mother was only 16 years older than me," Killer Mike says in a wide-ranging interview with Double J's Karen Leng.
"So, the first favourite hip hop to me didn't even belong to me, it was my mother's music."
His mother listened to seminal artists like Kurtis Blow, The Fab 5, Whodini and Salt-N-Pepa.
"So, I was a kid listening to hip hop with my mum," he says.
"When I heard Run DMC though, and I seen them dressed in black denim, and I seen them in Adidas suits, I was like, 'Oh, this is what I want to do with my life.'"
Killer Mike was around eight years old at the time.
"And I'm telling my teachers, I'm gonna be an MC. And my teacher [said] you're smart, Michael. You should probably be a pilot."
Killer Mike actually learnt to fly planes, but he never could abandon the desire to pursue his passion, and so he did.
"Flying was fun. You've given me a new love, but I really still want to be an MC."
He's found solace in hip hop throughout his life.
"For me, hip hop has been a friend," he says. "It has been a big brother and sister to me. It has been the comforting music my mother played for me while we sat around as she drove to school.
"And I've grown up with this thing called hip hop and I'm very proud to be a part of the culture. I'm very proud to represent it well."
'Run' - the 2022 lead single to Michael - is significant for being the first solo music from the Run The Jewels rapper in more than a decade.
Produced by NO I.D., featuring Young Thug, and with an intro by comedian Dave Chappelle, 'Run' is essentially a protest song, described in promotional material as being about black people and their allies 'rising against the Nazi-esque secessionists that want to take the country back into the confederacy.'
"It is an anthem of sorts," Killer Mike says.
"I feel like I'm constantly in a competition with myself to become a better rapper, to grow stylistically. And I don't want to disappoint, I don't want to just do something because I was compelled to do it. I want to do it and do it well, and 'Run' is an example of that.
"So, it's a fine piece of art."
Killer Mike has always had a social conscience.
"As much as I love my day job, I do have a social responsibility, like my grandparents raised me to do, to speak up when the truth needs to be said, and I have an opportunity to."
He says he will continue to fight for Young Thug, who is featured on the track, and has been in jail since May, 2022 fighting racketeering charges along with 27 other people.
Prosecutors are trying to use his lyrics and social media posts to build a case against him. "Which according to the American Constitution should be illegal," says Killer Mike.
"And I'll give you an example. There was a white woman who really killed her husband, who wrote an article on how to kill your husband.
"That article was not allowed to be used in her trial because of her first amendment rights," he says.
"Now if a woman who actually murdered someone can write an article 'how to murder my husband,' and it not be used, a rapper who makes up instances, who's made up this creation, because really, Jeffrey [Williams] is the human being, but he's made up this Young Thug character and in this character, he's just a badass, he's almost like a blaxploitation figure. You know, he's the baddest guy on the block.
"His lyrics shouldn't be dragged in the court and used against him.
"And this is something I've fought for long before and I'll fight for long after."
He says Young Thug does a lot of good in his community and is better off out of jail.
"When hanging out with him and his crew, I got to see him be a leader," Killer Mike says.
"I got to see him employ people, I got to see him take care of people and give other people opportunity to change their lives. And I was beyond impressed by him as a human being."
So, would Killer Mike ever enter politics?
"I smoke marijuana, I go to strip clubs with my wife," he says, recounting a conversation he had with Chappelle, who was encouraging him to run for governor.
He says while he's not keen on running for office, that conversation emboldened him to keep speaking truth to power in his music. 'Run' suggests he still has plenty to say.
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