Atlanta-based hip hop musician Killer Mike has never been one to stay in what many people might consider the safe lane for Black public figures on hot button political issues. Back in 2020, Mike released a video message to try to calm the chaos, in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of police officers.

While he admitted in his speech that watching the video of Floyd’s death made him “mad as hell,” he chose to take a step back from the emotions of the moment, and reminded people that it’s “[their] duty not to burn [their] own house down for anger with an enemy.”

My colleague Nick Arama wrote that the rapper also talked about rioters attacking the CNN building; he took the network to task for inflaming “fear and anger” with its coverage. Mike said:

I love CNN… but I gotta say to CNN right now: Karma’s a mother. Stop feeding fear and anger every day. Stop making people feel so fearful and give them hope

But another topic that Mike has addressed is guns and gun control, and their effect on Black people. In 2018, during a guest appearance he made on “Real Time With Bill Maher,” Maher turned the conversation to how his fellow liberals would “have to come to terms with the fact that there’s a racial component” to the gun debate. As Kira Davis wrote on the segment:

If you’ve been listening to [Killer Mike] over the last few years, you know that he’s not saying anything different than he’s always said. He’s not an ally of the NRA. He’s not an ally of Republicans. He’s for damn sure not a conservative.[…]

As Mike points out in the “Real Time with Bill Maher” segment, guns laws have historically been used to control black Americans by confiscating the tools of self-protection, leaving them vulnerable to violent racists and state oppressors.

Mike said on the show: “These laws are going to affect us worse and they’re going to affect us first.”

Now, in a new, exclusive interview he did this week with TMZ, Mike picked up the gun control issue again—and he’s still saying things you wouldn’t expect from a hip hop artist.

TMZ:

Killer Mike believes any new gun control laws in America will hurt Black people before any other group — but the rapper’s telling us a few other ways he thinks the spike in gun violence can be flattened. […]

Mike says he’s a Second Amendment guy, first and foremost, but adds he has another problem with tighter gun laws.

He explains why he believes those laws would impact Black Americans “worst and first.”

Then Killer Mike shared something that’s simple to convey and a common sense solution that could resonate with people who likely haven’t been exposed to a positive message on gun ownership:

Mike tells us he’d rather see Black families armed, and better educated on the safer use and storage of weapons.

TMZ reported that he brought up another real solution, as the city of Atlanta considers imposing a curfew to curb violence among minors:

….[M]ore funding for community facilities — such as YMCAs — to give kids safe havens to avoid trouble.

It’s refreshing to have someone from the cultural side of things speaking the truth about guns. And the role culture plays in changing hearts and minds about politics hasn’t dimmed a bit. Politics is still very much downstream from culture—and it always will be. It’s one of the things we need to improve on as conservatives but we’re getting there, little by little.

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