Killer Mike has long fielded comparisons to Ice Cube based on his gruff delivery and emphatic style. Speaking with Good Fella Radio Show, the Atlanta, Georgia rapper explained that he welcomes the comparisons to the West Coast veteran because his records helped shape who he is as a person.
“I look at it like, me listening to rap in the ’90s and late ‘80s, I was in school. The instructors I was most attracted to in terms of wanting to emulate a style – and not just a style of rap, but just a lifestyle as a man – was Brad Jordan, Scarface, O’Shea Jackson, Ice Cube, Chuck D, BDP and [Kool] G Rap,” he said. “Ice Cube, my tone is what it is, and I hate to say I can speak like I’m from Atlanta, I speak like this because my grandmother trained me to speak well and not like she said, ‘Talk down.’”
He credits his upbringing to the way that he raps and speaks. “Because of the way I was reared and the way I was trained to speak, my accent rap-wise and stylistic has more Los Angeles inflections because their accent is essentially a Southern accent propered,” he continued. “I have a Southern accent but it’s propered because my grandmother was so stern about education.”
Mike Bigga also recalled telling Ice Cube a few weeks ago that his music helped define his personality.
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“My tone happens to reflect his, and that’s one thing. Because a lot of people come out trying to sound like him. It’s literally just in me. I told him this – and I opened for him a few weeks ago – and I told him this. ‘Your music affected me at my core and shaped me as a man. “Black Korea” shaped me as a man. “Dead Homiez” shaped me as a man.’ You can’t shake that kind of influence. When you hear me tell a story, that’s because Scarface shaped me as a man. Rap used to do this, rap don’t do this so much anymore – rap teaches you how to swag out and act like a little boy – but rap set a bar for me on how to be a man in terms of reading and my political activity.”
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