-Welcome back, and thank you for being here.
How many times have you been on our show?
-I think it's like third or fourth.
We're like family now. -Yeah, exactly.
-As a kid, I always wanted to be in The Roots, too,
so it just makes me feel closer
to one of my favorite rap groups.
-Perfect. Welcome, welcome, welcome.
Thanks for being here. -Thanks for having me, man.
-You know, I know you as Killer Mike
the performer, the artist,
but, also, I never saw Killer Mike the actor.
And then I watched "Ozark," last season of "Ozark,"
and you crushed it, bud.
-Man, drug-dealing, white, middle-class family --
this is my kind of show.
-How did you get involved with "Ozark"?
-I loved that show like my old, white boss loved "The Wire."
You know, he thought I was from Baltimore.
So, I was like, "I don't even have the same accent."
"But you sold drugs, Michael."
I met Laura Linney on a plane.
I was stoned. I was high and high.
And my wife, Shana, used to love watching "The Big C,"
so of course I couldn't pass up a chance to be like,
"My wife loves you."
-Yeah.
-And she was just incredibly nice.
So, someone on the show besides her, the director,
who's an amazing female director,
called over Jad, my guy at WME, and say,
"Hey, would Mike be interested in this?"
I read the part, cried tears of joy
that I got to talk about "Illmatic" on "Ozark."
And, man, it just was a great experience.
-You crushed it. -I want to be on TV more.
-Yeah. I love that you were high and high.
So funny. That's a great line.
You know, I wanted to ask you about this.
Midterm elections coming up. I know you're an activist.
Is there a message you'd like to get out there
to people about the midterm elections?
-Yeah, get registered to vote. Get out and vote.
It's very serious and hyper-serious locally.
On a very local level, the people that are
your chief of police, the mayors you elect,
your prosecutors, your city-council people.
It's very important.
A couple weeks ago, they were threatening
the nightlife in Georgia, in Atlanta in particular,
which kind of sprouts some of the biggest artists
in the world, from 2 Chainz to T.I. to Lil Baby to myself.
And if those clubs, which a lot are independently
or small-business owned, get closed,
then that closes the whole economy.
I got a chance to go testify with
a lot of other people who own the clubs.
2 Chainz was there.
And because we did that, city council
decided to work with the club owners
to figure out better policy.
That's the power of voting
and that's why I want people to vote.
[ Cheers and applause ] -Get out there.
Can we talk about "Run"? -"Run."
It's my first single in 10 years.
I'm in a very successful rap group called Run the Jewels.
-Run the Jewels! [ Cheers and applause ]
-Shouts out to El-P, my guy who's out on Fire Island
doing what ballin' rappers do,
as I'm sitting here dancing and singing.
-[ Laughs ]
-And in 10 years, it felt good to finally say,
"Okay, we take a pause."
COVID said, "Hold on.
Mike, why don't you give the world a single?"
And I did it, and people are responding well.
And it's a hopeful, uplifting, from Black Atlanta,
Black America, just to say,
"We got to keep running toward victory and freedom."
-Yeah. [ Cheers and applause ]
And last week, Governor Newsom signed
the Decriminalizing Artistic Expression Act in California.
-Yeah.
-Can you talk about how important that is?
-So, I'll give you this really quickly.
There was this really -- She was an old white lady, right?
She wrote an article called "How to Kill Your Husband"
and then she went and killed her husband.
And after she killed the guy, the judge said,
"Well, you can't use the article she wrote about it,"
because that's a part of her artistic expression
and her First Amendment rights.
Well, a lot of kids who are poor and in cities
didn't get the same -- or don't get the same fair treatment.
They could say something haphazardly
and they could be charged or it could be added to a charge.
Governor Newsom and the state of New York --
Assemblymen in California and a senator, I believe, in New York
both have sponsored bills to limit
the law's ability to do that, because, ultimately,
the Constitution was written for all of our benefit.
It took the 14th and 15th amendment
to recognize the rights of African-Americans,
but if any of these rights are infringed upon,
it will certainly infringe upon all of us one day.
So I encourage people to make sure
that you're strict about making sure your Constitutional rights
are protected and covered.
And if you don't believe in freedom of speech
for those people you don't agree with,
you don't believe in freedom of speech at all.
-Yeah. [ Cheers and applause ]
Because, for instance, you are Killer Mike.
-Yes, yeah.
-But that's not because you kill people.
-Microphones I slaughter. -Yeah, okay, yeah.
Exactly. Just so you know,
that's exactly kind of one of the points.
I want to say also, by the way, thank you for doing this.
Your new single, "Run," is out, and you put it out on cassette.
-Yes. -That is money.
That is money right there. Why did you do it on cassette?
-So, I've got to shout out this collector from Atlanta
named Nuface, who has cassettes, wax,
every piece of hip-hop toys.
And he's an amazing hip-hop historian.
Partly because of people like him that are out there,
it's value, and I just got a bunch of old cars.
And my old cars got CDs and cassettes,
and I like to jam it like
I jammed Raekwon's tape back in the day.
-That's -- come on. That's what I'm talking about!
Killer Mike, everybody.
Going to perform "Run" for us after the break.
Come on back, everybody.