Thursday, March 28, 2024

Killer Mike Compares Criminalization of Rap Music to Jim Crow (Watch)

Killer Mike*In the eyes of some, rap music has become a weapon in helping to unfairly criminalize black men. For Killer Mike, that mind state exhibit shades of a time gone by.

“It signals to me that Jim Crow is very much alive,” the rapper told HuffPost Live host Ricky Camilleri on Wednesday (April 1). “I think that in this country we love the nostalgic stories of how far we’ve come in transforming…and we have not. If we don’t remain vigilant about these things, we never will.”

Killer Mike’s comments come amid a time where lyrics from rap songs introduced in court cases are scrutinized and dissected to in an effort to further incriminate the artists behind the tunes.

The Huffington Post notes the action “used almost exclusively against black men who, as we all know, are frequent producers of rap music.” The case referenced by the publicaqtion involves songs from rappers Brandon Duncan (stage name Tiny Doo) and McKinley Phipps (aka Mac), which were used in their respective cases and presented by prosecutors as evidence in order to convict them of crimes.

Prosecutors’ use of rap lyrics in court is something Killer Mike is very much against as he believes the action marks the overall criminalization of black boys.

“It used as a tool to literally hang our boys,” said the rapper, who feels the unfair criminalization starts early with young black boys. “It is wrong, it is evil, it is vicious, it is maniacal and it is systemic.”

While rap lyrics are often referenced in court cases, the Post mentioned that although similar instances have occurred in other cases,  almost none of those cases target artists or musicians from other genres.

Killer Mike agrees, saying, “I listen to a lot of Johnny Cash, I’m a huge admirer of country music and southern rock. Southern rock and country music are some of the most violent and dark music you’ll ever hear set to a ridiculously good melody and because the people that often times are in the prosecutors office and sitting on the bench and the arresting officers align themselves more with the culture that creates that type of music. They don’t see the problem in it.”

Watch:

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