Killer Mike spoke to the media’s coverage of the civil unrest in Baltimore in a article he wrote for Billboard.
“I’ve watched Geraldo Rivera and [Wolf] Blitzer pander to the audiences of oppression on TV,” the Atlanta rapper said.
The rapper referenced a recent video that showed “a very sensible man” confronting Rivera, accusing him of slanting the coverage of Baltimore. “We’re the ones that need protection, report for us,” the man said, as Geraldo Rivera smiled and walked away.
Mike also mentioned Blitzer’s reaction to the unrest in Bmore. “He never thought he’d see such violence again in America,” the rapper said. “And he said nearly the exact same words about Ferguson a few months ago.”
Killer Mike said he doesn’t have issues with the police, that his dad was a policeman and the world needs them. He wants to show people the “exhaustion” of the situation and cut down on the “anarchy in the streets” feel. The visuals for his “Close Your Eyes” record embody that. “As a black man,” he says, “it shows what it’s like to wrestle with police in this culture, and secondarily it shows that most police don’t want to be doing this.”
The Run The Jewels rapper rounded out his article with a message.
“For the people of Baltimore — I don’t criticize rioting because I understand it,” he said. “But after the fires die down: organize, strategize and mobilize. Like Ferguson, you have an opportunity to start anew. I don’t have a solution because whoever’s there will have to come up with it. But we need community relations: riots are the language of the unheard.”
For more on Killer Mike, watch the following DX Daily:
if they dont want peace give them war because matters of black people are heavy but taken lightly which means we gotta keep fighting till they hear us out,all i wanna say is that they dont really care abt us they rather cover royal baby watch than whats at stake its been 2 decades since fuck the police and a decade since the rain by akon what is this telling situations aint change yet
This is untrue and it’s been shown time and time again. Riots generally destroy the community of the rioters and set the community back a decade as resources are destroyed, the property value goes down, and no new businesses want to move in. How fucking short is our collective memory? This has NOTHING to do about being “heard,” it has everything to do with people being violent and sabotaging themselves. This new trend of trying to validate these actions is fucking ridiculous and so transparently false, ask the people who went through the Rodney King riots and what happened to the places that were destroyed. These are not by the people for the people, it’s by the people for themselves. It’s selfishness and it leads to ruination.
Your missing one more K, in your username bud
Because of the minority of people who take advantage and loot? Riots absolutely have EVERYTHING to do with being heard. The fact that not every riot leads to change doesn’t mean that they aren’t effective. The storming of the Bastille, the Stonewall Riots, Tiananmen Square…these all had hugely important impacts on society and government. Pick up a fucking history book
“Because of the minority of people who take advantage and loot? Riots absolutely have EVERYTHING to do with being heard.” Because the ONLY people rioting are looting and causing destruction. That is what a fucking riot is, it is 100% theft and destruction. There is no such thing as a passive or positive rioter.
^I just find it ironic when you want to talk about people’s collective memories being short, when you refuse to look deeper than the surface of the violence of a riot and totally disregard any political or societal changes achieved. That’s like saying we shouldn’t have fought the Civil War because a bunch of people died and things went to shit, and just pretend slavery never happened.
try to keep yourself in 2015 and not a war that happened when lincoln was president lol
if a riot that kills one pharmacy and some small stores sets back a community then that community was doomed in the 1st place. you dummies think that living in a small town with one supermarket and one convenience store are better off but you are in the same predicament and looking worse because you’re being robbed blindly.
Smh. Try to realize that that was only 150 years ago and human beings haven’t changed that much. Only ignorant ass individuals ignore what’s happened in the past and act like because it’s 2015 nothing applies. There’s a reason they teach history (albeit watered down and biased) in schools.
Just look at the comment section on fox news and muthafuckas shouldn’t have rioted? Please people on their are defending the cops who murdered Freddy and glad he’s gone. And of course the regular racist shit that comes from the old Republican commenters its a shame people dont see what the riot was really about.
Best said from the irrelevant hip hop artist…..but everyone has a sound byte to put out now
He was just at the White House Correspondence dinner, obviously his sound bytes are relevant to somebody.
Martin Luther King said the title quote, Killer Mike just repeated it. Jesus DX you guys are fuckin ridiculous
Exactly. This is stupidity at it’s finest.
Im from the D a lot of contracts were lost because of the riots in the 1960s.My city lost investors and a lot of contracts so Mike is on A game what up doe.
black people think they are the only ones getting killed by cops. why don’t you convince the urban males of similar complexion to stop committing crimes, then maybe cops will stop being on high alert around you, resulting in death.
k.m.’s next album should be called “riots are the language of the unheard” i thought this was a promo for a new album when i read the title and thought it was a dope ass album title.
I bet KM would fucking cringe if he read this and saw a dumbass bigot telling him what his album title should be.
Realness thought if the media only shows blacks doing ignorant things then that is all people who do not actually deal with black people think we are capable of. I watched VICE the other day and they glorify whites and think of them as superior and even pay for white faces(BODIES, White actors getting paid to play real doctors. WTF just because they are white. Like there was a room full of asian doctors looking to this man as if he is a GOD in the their field.
60+ years of democrat oppression in Detroit and 50+ years going strong in Baltimore!
Keep voting Democrat and keep getting those welfare checks and no opportunities!
#StayontheDemocratPlantation