I got Killer Mike to deliver the speech because I knew people would listen.
Like that's his voice.
His voice is one of those things when he speaks people listen.
I listen.
I know so many people really do listen and I didn’t write that part for him.
He freestyled that first take, went in and out the booth and he just did it.
So the way that I see just to paint the picture it’s a rainy night, well after midnight
and a man of color breaks into a church and he goes into just the front of it by the cross.
There are candles everywhere lit up and he’s just repenting and he’s just praying and
he’s almost cursing the heavens and he doesn’t even believe in God.
And this is a dude who’s from the hood and he knows he’s a piece of shit.
He’s not a good person.
He’s just not a good person.
And that just is what it is.
It doesn’t matter what fucking color he is.
Him, he’s just not a good guy.
But he knows compared to the people that he grew up with that he’s just a fucking saint.
Like yes, I am this person.
I am becoming this person.
When I’m out doing auditions and acting I become this person.
I’m not just Logic or Bobby and read some fucking words.
No I’m like I am this guy.
I am this person.
Every perspective that you hear me rapping from.
It’s not just me like “I’m just going to make this shit up.”
It’s like “No I am either that person, have that experience or it was my sister’s
or my mother or my brother or my friends, my wife, or their cousin.”
These are all real people that exist.
I’ve just given them a fictional scenario to paint a bigger picture for the listener
at home to hopefully be able to relate to.
That’s it.
I just know a lot of people that feel like pieces of shit.
That’s the thing.
It’s never just one person.
That’s the one thing I want you to understand.
All of these characters are so many people that I have seen, witness, been apart of,
spoken to, had conversations with.
There’s so many elements from so many different people.
I know a million people myself included who felt like they needed to repent to the Lord
or curse the heavens or whatever.
And because of that, I’ve taken all of those experiences to create these people.
I know what that’s like, shit.
When I was growing up and I was super poor and my life was horrible, terrible, disgusting,
I used to wish I could be like a cat or a dog in a nice family.
My life was so fucked up that I wished I could be somebody’s pet in their rich ass mansion.
That is like fucked up.
So that is like the same thing.
Here’s this grown ass man who …. Rather than going to work or going here or doing
whatever he is doing for some other motherfucker he doesn’t even care about, he wishes he
could be somebody else somewhere else.
I think we’ve all felt that at times like, “Man I wish I could be famous.
Or this or that or rich or poor.
Whatever the case may be.”
And because of that, we see what he’s facing.
He goes in wondering like it feels like to take flight.
My momma told me everything was going to alright.
That’s where you get that reassuring “Everything’s going to be alright child.
Everything’s going to be alright.”
“Everybody runnin the world seem to be all white / Can you mothafuckas see alright?”
I’m out here trying to get a job and I’m getting denied because of the color of my skin.
What the fuck you mean it's gonna be alright?
That doesn’t make any sense.
So I like Scotch.
I’m a Scotch man and I never really drank a lot.
Now that I’m older, I’ll have a nice little Scotch with my buddies or whatever the case may be.
I don’t know why but in the back of my mind was that Kid Cudi “Spazzin” off his A
Kid Named Cudi tape.
What does he say?
He says something… “in a river of Hennessey.”
[sings] I don’t know.
That always stuck with me.
I didn’t think about that when I wrote it but I always think it was somewhere in the
back of my mind just sitting there for like 7 years and then I was inspired to do my own
play on it.
Me and my wife were doing a duet there so that’s us together.
Oh, there you go, there's a fact nobody knows.
I think it’s very deep down in him.
I want you to save me.
I need you to save me.
Can somebody be there?
It’s almost like he’s just talking to people, loved ones, girlfriends, all this.
He’s just letting it all out.
And the funny part… in my mind, I haven’t even thought of this before.
When you hear this I’m rapping what’s in his mind.
So I’m rapping what’s in his mind.
And that singing part is in his mind.
And the I need you to save me that’s sung from a woman, that powerful voice.
But what he does say, that’s what Killer Mike says.
He actually goes to the church to say.
I told him here’s my vision.
This is beyond just me painting a story or painting this picture and telling the story
of some guy in a church.
This is how so many people have felt in their lives.
They just give up.
They don’t know what to do.
They’re at their wits end and just don’t know.
They just have no idea.
So I just wanted him to paint that picture.
Especially for someone of color in America today.
And I think he did a really fucking beautiful job and he’s the best.