Killer Mike received three Grammy Awards for his critically adored Michael album, which really netted him a complete of 4 of the celebrated trophies to date in his profession. The Atlanta multihyphenate caught his first in 2002 (with rather less drama), due to a pointy verse on OutKast’s “The Entire World,” so he had a little bit of a drought between accolades.
So the vindication of lastly getting extra correct recognition, together with one for Finest Rap Album, from his musical friends was that a lot sweeter. “It felt like acknowledgment of the work,” Mike tells Hip-Hop Wired of what he felt getting his awards. “Hip-Hop…individuals say the tradition, they usually say…it’s normally a method to an finish when most individuals say that, they usually’re utilizing the tradition. However as a child who grew up within the Deep South, on this little city masquerading as a metropolis known as Atlanta, all I ever needed to be was an MC. And to realize the dream of turning into an MC after which to within the 50th 12 months of Hip-Hop make one of the best Rap Album…only a pure Hip-Hop album, it’s one of many biggest [feelings]. It’s a vindication from the bullshit 3.5 The Supply gave me. It’s a vindication from the bullshit 6.5 Pitchfork gave me. It’s a vindication from bullshit ass evaluations on-line of people who find themselves not even from my tradition, not solely on Hip-Hop however a from Black southern man’s tradition. It’s vindication that enables me to roll by in my ‘67, $100,000 Firebird and shoot a hen out the window and say fuck you motherfuckers, I did it!”
However don’t mistake his tallying of receipts for bitter grapes. He provides, “On a really sensible degree past vindication, what it’s, is an affirmation that the dream of a nine-year-old baby and the work that he put in over the course of the final about to be 40 years, was an affirmation that the creativeness of a kid, inspired and untethered, something is feasible. And every little thing is feasible.”
Whereas the Grammy nods are nice, Killer Mike additionally carried out at City One Honors a number of weeks prior (it taped Jan. 20 at The Roxy in Atlanta), and getting recognition from a Black-owned entity was simply as poignant. When requested to talk on it started by giving props to City One’s founder, Cathy Hughts. “To begin with I give loads of reward to Cathy Hughes for having imaginative and prescient to create Radio One and be the tip of the spear in what’s turn into a media megaplex with the tv, radio and past,” mentioned Mike. “I used to be honored to be requested by Cee Lo to be part of it, Cory Mo helped put it collectively and shouts out to City One.”
Killer Mike went on so as to add that TV One additionally has a particular place in his family.
“If you wish to see The Cosby Present, in order for you if you wish to see Black individuals doing effectively and thriving, you wish to see A Completely different World, that’s the place you go as a household,” defined Mike. “The identical method I might watch Norman Lear stuff with my grandparents—Good Instances, The Jeffersons, Sanford & Son—I been blessed by means of City One to have the ability to have and recreate related issues with my household right here on the home. We’re not watching loads of aspirational issues that aren’t us, we get to look at stuff that is us. And that’s necessary. It was necessary for me to be acknowledged by them, and I’m deeply honored.”
Remember to watch City One Honors: Finest in Black when it premieres Sunday, February 25 at 8/7C on TV One.
