ATLANTA, GA — Rapper, activist, entrepreneur and talk show host Killer Mike (born Michael Render) is prepared to release his new album MICHAEL on June 16 along with a nationwide tour to follow. This is Killer Mike’s first solo album since 2012’s R.A.P. Music and his most autobiographical album to date.
He’s released two singles from the new project, “Motherless” and “Don’t Let The Devil” ft. thankugoodsir and El-P, who also provided the treatment.
“El’s heard me talk about these bohemian-artsy-disco infused parties my mom used to throw when I was kid,” Killer Mike said. “I’d hear everything there: that’s where I first heard Grandmaster Flash, Kurtis Blow & Whodini. When we were trying to figure out what the video should be, Jaime came back with this treatment written out and I cried at the end. What’s even crazier is he didn’t know what we were doing for ‘Motherless’ either but that’s the magic I guess.”
For the last 20 years, fans have had the opportunity to hear this gifted musician display his art through many forms including hip-hop. First introduced on the scene by the legendary group Outkast and a member of the Dungeon Family, Killer Mike made sure to use the gift of his voice to speak on issues and topics that needed to be addressed. He has gone from music artist to developing a dynamic group in Run The Jewel with his partner El-P, speaking on various panels, an advocate for social justice and talk show host.
On the single “Motherless,” he explores the issues of the voids of his mother and grandmother who are no longer with him. However, he paints a very vivid tribute toward the lessons he has learned from the two incredible women in his life: his grandmother Bettie Clonts, who raised him and died in 2012, and his mother, Denise Clonts, who had him at 16 years old and died in 2017.
“I’m not absent men in my life, but there’s something about that matriarchal love that my grandmother and my mother gave me that has allowed me to embrace my humanity more,” Killer Mike told the New York Times.
“I have to present something in these times that’s not weak and feeble or exploitive and aimless,” Killer Mike told the New York Times. “I have to present something from Atlanta that shows the tradition of thought and lyricism and wit and soul and gospel — what Dungeon Family brought to the game, what Curtis Mayfield gave them, and what Outkast and Goodie Mob ushered into the world.”
The Atlanta emcee was absolutely born to rap, and this latest project is one of the more balanced albums where fans and consumers can understand the layers to Killer Mike as an artist and person.
Killer Mike will begin his “High And Holy Tour” on July 10 in Birmingham, Alabama and will continue through August 5 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Cities on his tour include Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York City, Charlotte, Chicago, Washington D.C., San Francisco, Phoenix, Dallas, and Houston to name a few.
To Pre-order the NEW ALBUM: https://runthejewels.com/collections/killer-mike?vgo_ee=%2FHj%2FyahLtI9L3n2tcABE30XxMVAOyEx8kA%2BURdXZjT%2BA%2FGxHPjAT8qGJU90Se4d4%3AEXxoilkOlNnZA%2FnWd3jDvk77kk1WU%2FM7
