Rapper, writer and activist Michael Render – aka Killer Mike – has been making wisely provocative solo albums since 2003’s ‘Monster’, and equally explosive records with his pal, rapper-producer EL-P as Run the Jewels (RTJ) since 2013. Killer Mike took time away from solo gamesmanship—2012’s ‘R.A.P. Music’ was his last solo for a minute—to make RTJ what he calls the “ultimate hip hop group”, but that doesn’t mean that Render lost his impulse, or need, for me time.
So, along with continuing on with his usual great causes for social equality and against systemic racism, the rapper made time for his first solo album in a more than a decade, ‘Michael’, and its concurrent tour, which makes a stop in Philadelphia Friday, July 21 at the Franklin Music Hall.
From its angel-devil school yearbook cover photo to its warmly soulful melodies and lyrics surrounding his time with his mom, grandmother and childhood friends, Michael is Killer Mike’s most personal solo recording. Touching on how many of his old chums are in dire straits due to addiction and joblessness also feeds into Killer Mike’s activist screeds
“I’m never NOT that guy,” said Killer Mike from Atlanta, readying for his solo tour while discussing uniting communities for the sake of equity and empowerment. “There is not a Michael who isn’t politically active. I don’t put activism aside to make something more personal.”
Talking about being prompted to move toward activism when hyper-local issues in his community occurred, the self-importance of organizing, education and mentorship become clear.
“My grandmother laid the foundation of being politically active and having local representation for her neighborhood, and I was right there at her skirt hem… If there is a problem in your community, you take care of it. Now, in terms of the Michael of this new album, I did want people to see the totality of the human being. That I’m not just as activist, not just a rapper, not just a dad and a husband. Not just anything. That I am a culmination of all of these things.”
Starting with the track “Down by Law,” written and recorded during the close of Barack Obama’s presidency, there is a prodigal son feel to ‘Michael’ – coming home to the South, to his family, coming to the muses and the music that made him.
“I had a goal when EL-P and I formed Run the Jewels: making four classic albums in a row, as we have, would make us into a classic group just like Led Zeppelin. I can’t wait until RTJ makes number five. Now the fun starts for real. Meeting that goal, and having Covid sit everyone down, I began to realize the mortality of others along with my own mortality. I had given the world this swaggering bad a*s rapper with RTJ, but I had never given the world JUST Michael.”
So Render kept a home life with his wife and children during the pandemic, and clocked in with office hours making ‘Michael’ on his own. “It was a homecoming with all of the people in my life, present and past, and a homecoming with the music of my life,” he said.
