Killer Mike Says "Thank You For The Hate"

Ajouté : 2026-06-07

[00:00:00]I just want to encourage people to stay politically active no matter what criticisms you face or what side of the aisle you're on. This republic is only held together by people who care on a very common and local level what's going on in their community. So, if you don't actively engage and conversate with me or even insult online, I don't know what's working. So, to the guy who kept, you know, making the memes about the fish sandwiches, our sales are 41% on fish sandwiches. I was able to hire another young man who had been trying to get a job three times. We now have expanded to just under 20 employees.

[00:00:32]Bank of Seafood is paying for itself and it's thriving in the community. So, thank you for the hate because people say, "Man, I seen your No, your fish sandwich. I had to come in here and get me one." And boy, let me tell you while we ate fish sandwiches, we talked we who about who we liked and didn't like and people went out to the polls and voted.

[00:00:47]There was a I think million voters came out. So, whatever I do in terms of my community, I'm proud of because it gets people to the polls.

[00:00:58]And I think that's why I was angrier.

[00:01:00]How dare you talk bad about me? People been talking bad about me. My my my nickname is They've been They've been so mad at you. They've been on me. Yeah.

[00:01:07]They've been getting mad. What are you really mad about? Cuz you got mad cuz someone made a go vote.

[00:01:13]I mean, you literally you got mad cuz a rapper and probably your problem is you guys learn by clip and I don't take you guys like I'm outside because there once was a time I did. There's a famous clip where Malcolm says, you know, you know, celebrities, you don't you know, you know, you don't let celebrities be your leaders. And I understood what what the brother was saying when he said that, but it also negates Paul Robeson.

[00:01:38]Who's accused of being a communist and who was driven out of business by McCarthyism and treated horribly.

[00:01:44]There's an interview he did in Australia almost 100 years ago. The interview was masterful. And he's explaining to them, you can't make get mad at black people for exploring communism. Look how capitalism has treated us. Paul Robeson.

[00:01:56]You think about Mahalia Jackson. When you think about the reason I know Spike Lee, the reason his movie was made in my time by a creative. If it had not been for Spike Lee, and if it had not been for the memory of Dick Gregory, who kept him alive.

[00:02:11]If it had not have been for Dick Gregory who talked about Malcolm X. Often I remember being young, we didn't hear much about Malcolm in the South. But if it wasn't for Dick Gregory. So if it wasn't for that entertainment class, if it wasn't for that class, would the memory of Malcolm even have been as strong? It wasn't for that movie that was made. Some people Some people didn't like it, but it was talked about. So I just would like to say to black people, if all you got is sports and entertainment, use it to the best of your ability and educate those people.

[00:02:37]Jim Brown, one of the most powerful leaders in my life. I never saw him run the football. I saw the tapes of him running the football. I knew Jim Brown because of American Me or Amer-I-Can, wasn't it? Amer-I-Can. He, the former gang leaders that came down here and mentored my gang member homeboys out of a life of crime into a life of decency, had been trained by an athlete. But the difference was that athlete was educated well by the schools and universities he went to, and he was educated in social responsibility. So I'm going to say that I challenge my people who are on the ground to socially educate your children in a way that even if they become nothing but singers and dancers and athletes, they feel socially responsible and accountable to do something. Because I think that when we do that, everybody does a little bit, and we're not looking at nobody like you got to do a lot.

[00:03:27]>> I do think there's a issue with uh with voting in our community. People are too like they're not connected to the issues. They're connected to the people. So if a rapper, Killer Mike, can influence you to not vote, then that's an issue within our community.

[00:03:50]Not Killer Mike talking about issues, but if Killer Mike can say nobody should vote.

[00:03:56]That's a major issue. If somebody can say, "Oh, we're going to hire all these celebrities. We're going to do this and that, and this is going to galvanize people to vote."

[00:04:05]But what about the issues? You know what I mean? Cuz I don't think that a lot of people are voting for the issues.

[00:04:11]It's a popularity contest. Cuz if it was voting for the issues, then we wouldn't have people who actually get elected.

[00:04:17]>> And And if we were defining our issues on a more consistent basis. The reason that I always lead with plot, plan, strategize, organize, mobilize. When you plot something, you plan. When you plot and plan. So, I I got a suspicion about something. Let me start to plot this out. Then you start planning. Well, what can I What can plan can I develop? Plot, plan, strategize. You strategize when you get other people. You start to see are there holes in it? I plot, plan, strategize. Now I'm strategizing. Now I'm putting actual I'm going to follow this through. This strategy is going to come out of my plot plan. Plot, plan, strategize, organize. Kwame Ture said we must be in a constant state of organized. So, that means on a weekly, bi-weekly, monthly basis I should be getting with my neighborhood groups, my church groups, even my own family. I should be in a constant state of organized. And then Michael, what we do once we organize? We mobilize. And you mobilize around things that that that you've decided in your plot planning for your strategy process. These are the things that we can address on a very local level. And I think if people do that, like most people don't even know their neighbors in the same way. You should know your 10 neighbors to the left and right of you. Your 10 neighbors to the left and right of you should decide what's best for your street. Your 10 neighbors should tell your city council person of your ward council person, "Hey, this is what's best for this street." If that's met and satisfied, then you vote for that person again. You help push other things that that push that street forward. Or if it doesn't, you get on somebody else's team. I think that if we think of voting that locally, so many people went this time in Georgia and said, "Man, there was so many people. I just didn't know.

[00:05:41]I started looking at names to see what sounded the most black." And I'm like, "No. That's what you can't do. You have to take your sample ballot, go back out in the hallway. I told about four people that's not allowed. I said I'm going to take a sample ballot. We don't go out. I need to look up two of these people on here. And we all sat out there together with our phones cuz you can't do it in the polling place. But we have to start to encourage one another on very local level. That aggravating ass lady who always telling you what's going on and what. That neighbor who knock and tell you, she's who you should counsel.

[00:06:08]>> Right.

[00:06:08]>> Before you hear the celebrity, before you even hear a politician because she stays so active that she's the person you should come to the commission meeting.

[00:06:16]>> But I I I do have a Not to cut you off, but I I got a question for you as >> Yeah.

[00:06:20]>> not as Mike Render but as a Killer Mike the rapper. Do you think the all the backlash you got during this Do you think that that will push celebrities away from speaking up and speaking out the same as it like Colin Kaepernick?

[00:06:38]>> Of course they will. They're they're they're Yeah, of course they will. I mean, they're scared. Yeah. They're scared. They're afraid They're like most people. But the see the problem is I'm not a celebrity.

[00:06:47]>> Mhm.

[00:06:48]>> Before I'm an organizer.

[00:06:50]I was an organizer before I was ever a celebrity. My grandmother had me knocking on doors at 5 years old in the projects homes. My granddaddy mad as hell. What you got my child in the housing projects for? I'm in the projects homes. Will you vote for Andy Young?

[00:07:00]>> Right.

[00:07:01]>> He's been a former U.S. Congressman. He was an ambassador under Jimmy Carter.

[00:07:04]He's running for mayor of Atlanta. We think This is feel I got to 5 years old. At 8 years old, I'm arguing with my grandmother saying 8 or 10, Walter Mondale's not going to beat not going to beat Ronald Reagan growing up.

[00:07:15]It's not It's not going to happen.

[00:07:16]Sorry. Geraldine Ferraro, not It's not going to happen. So I'm having these arguments. At this point, my grandmother's 54 maybe. I'm I'm 10. She had me at 44. So there's never not been a time in my life I've not been politically active. I've never not voted.

[00:07:30]>> Right.

[00:07:31]>> On voting day, my sister who went to Dillard, not the one who can't cook fish.

[00:07:36]I give her that cuz boy, [ __ ] Boy, she be on my ass about that. Um calls me still and say, "Hey, you you're going to be Canada when you need to get your early voting." So, my family handles voting and accountability and responsibility. Well, why Mike? My family's for Shorter. Shorter County making Tuskegee, Alabama. Making County Shorter Tuskegee, Alabama. My great-grandfather's father was used in the Tuskegee experiment.

[00:07:58]Used by this government. So, there's no way I'm not going to participate in this government. And we've given too much.

[00:08:04]You know, most people have these >> up cuz a lot of people cuz they out there saying you didn't even He probably didn't even vote.

[00:08:10]>> Well, they lie. And and I'm going to tell you that's [laughter] the only thing that aggravates me is the lie.

[00:08:14]Now, you you can you can say you you can say you can say he didn't go as hard as I wanted but you can't say I didn't endorse your the candidate who you who you're mad about because I did. You you can't The only The only reason I stopped talking is when people stop taking advice. Why I keep talking? I'm not going to keep I'm not going to keep wooing a girl who don't want me. I'm just I'm just high school. I was a little chubby boy. I like you, you don't like me. Okay, cool. I'll tell one of your friends Mike, but I'm not going to You know what I mean? And I and I think that sometimes people think that because I have the ability to go across the aisle or whatever they say and and communicate with other people that somehow that makes me a grifter of sorts. No, I just understand I got to work with whatever boss I get. You know what I mean? And I don't mean politicians. My boss I I learned that working at a rental place. I I worked at like a Aaron's Rentals and one boss I love, one boss I hated, but I ain't never missed no hours. I was going to get some money.

[00:09:01]>> Pardon me for interrupting. Is the issue education? Is the issue that most people are not educated on how this system >> Well, that's the issue that's that's the issue in terms of of of why we're not active.

[00:09:17]What what Motown was aggravated by and thankfully I I appreciate your defense of me is talking about is Gangs of New York. Have you seen that movie?

[00:09:28]Gangs of New York shows you one thing.

[00:09:30]The gangs always lose and the oligarchs are the ultimate gang, they win. At the end of gangs >> As we fighting amongst each other.

[00:09:38]Exactly.

[00:09:39]>> And and and and for me, what I've been most disappointed about in the party I've always voted for, I've always voted Democrat. More than that, I've voted Democrat.

[00:09:49]And I'm most disappointed is we used to understand that we are a tapestry.

[00:09:53]That that there are going to be some gay, some straight, there going to be some blacks, some whites, there going to be some um Baptist, some Jews. I had always seen the most diversity in terms of what people look like and thoughts and backgrounds in the Democratic Party, even here in the South. What I'm most disappointed in now is how fragmented we are.

[00:10:11]As a party, we have become so fragmented and polarized that if you don't agree with my issue or my candidate to the total, it's the [ __ ] Washington Redskins versus Dallas Cowboys. I'm never going to like you. And that And that makes no sense because that's not the way the world really works. You're not going to quit your job cuz your boss was Republican and more than likely not he is.

[00:10:30]>> The Commanders now.

[00:10:31]>> You know, you you're not you you You understand what I'm saying?

[00:10:33]The question becomes though, how can we take this tapestry and get this thing tied and formed together so that it advances us all? And everybody's group deserves they thing.

[00:10:44]>> Right.

[00:10:45]Let's make Let's make the best out of all the ingredients and create an incredible dish for us all to eat.

[00:10:51]>> Absolutely we can. Absolutely. I think what they >> that from Leonard Rowe.

[00:10:55]>> They used to tell us um um America was like a big soup, you know, you throw everything in but you kind of lose stuff. America's more like a salad.

[00:11:03]It's more like a salad with all these ingredients that are there and you get to you get to eat them and experience them together. Boy, you ain't seen nothing you seen black folks on Taco Tuesdays. Let me tell you something, you never seen a greater appreciation of Latinos than you seen black people. You know what I mean? When black people they found out, oh [ __ ] they look like us in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico and throughout through South America, oh we we was there too. You never seen a greater appreciation but it only happens when we're open to see other stuff. So those people who who with me and if that agree with more than that I appreciate you. Thank you. Let's keep marching forward. To the people who disagree with me, but we still have the same destination in mind. It's okay to be disagreeable. It's okay to disagree.

[00:11:40]It's not okay to lie.

[00:11:41]You cannot lie on me.

[00:11:43]You cannot say I did not support me and say Abraham said and I did. You cannot do this lie. He interviewed Herschel Walker without saying that he interviewed Senator Warnock, too.

[00:11:53]Now, I don't handle Senator Warnock's scheduling.

[00:11:55]I asked him before Herschel. He came after Herschel. I don't handle that part. All I do is and I'm the only person from the media that interviewed both of them.

[00:12:03]All I do is try to do my part to make sure that everyone who wants to speak as a journalist cuz I am in this capacity.

[00:12:09]>> Mhm.