It is no secret that Michael “Killer Mike” Render is one of the most politically active figures in Hip-Hop today. Over the years, he’s campaigned for Sen. Bernie Sanders, stood by former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and appeared on several politically focused television programs. While Killer Mike has primarily received support for exercising his political voice in entertainment, he has drawn backlash for a few things as well. Most notably, he received quite a bit of pushback after interviewing Herschel Walker as he runs for Senate in the state of Georgia.
“[I] watched the entire softball interview [and it] was embarrassingly unserious. If Herschel Walker was just promoting a football memoir, then fine, but he’s a US Senate candidate. Nothing on his opposition to abortion, voting rights, gun control, alleged domestic violence etc,” Black Women Views Founder Reecie Colbert tweeted.
More recently, Killer Mike has faced intense scrutiny after making critical comments about the Democratic Party in the state of Georgia. Specifically, he offered critiques of Georgia gubernatorial Stacey Abrams’ campaign before saying that sitting Georgia Governor Brian Kemp is “running an effective campaign.”
“The problem is that the person [Abrams] is running against is running an effective campaign,” Killer Mike said during a recent episode of Comedy Central’s Hell of a Week with Charlamagne Tha God.
“This week, what Mr. Kemp did was…He went to an all-Black boys’ school. That’s run by a conservative Black man down in Albany, Georgia.”
As clips of Killer Mike’s recent appearance on Hell of a Week have made the rounds, a 2020 quote from the Atlanta native about Kemp has made the rounds.
“As a Southern man, I connected pretty much instantly with him. Politics and policy don’t matter to me as much as human decency and principles, and he seemed to be a principled human being when I talked to him,” he said after meeting with Kemp in September 2020.
A tweet highlighting the quote has gained nearly 1,000 retweets and elicited a response from Killer Mike himself. In a series of tweets, the entrepreneur insinuated that the quote was dated and called on voters to turn their attention to the polls.
“Don’t waste [your] time being mad [about] a two-year-old picture of me. [You] better get to door knocking and canvassing for your side. I have not publicly endorsed any candidate and will be keeping my vote a private matter,” he tweeted.
“Twitter ain’t real, so get yo a** out [and] cast a vote.”
