Run the Jewels. Photo by Timothy Saccenti.
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Photo by Barrett Emke for Vice.com.
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It wasn’t just the music that was outspoken. Killer Mike brought the same sentiments of underground hip-hop (and much of the African American community) to the mainstream with appearances on several national media outlets, saying what much of white America desperately needed to hear, whether they wanted to or not. On August 20, he sat down with CNN host Brooke Baldwin and eloquently dropped truth bomb after truth bomb: “More times than not, black males are the least looked upon. We’re the least thought about in terms of education. We’re the least thought about in terms of community and police relations. But whatever this country is willing to do to them, to those black males, will eventually happen to all Americans. So I’m saying to America: if they will violate the rights of an 18-year-old African American child, what’s going to happen to anyone?” He was forceful and firm, prophetic and knowledgeable, all while still smiling and projecting an air of amiable approachability.Two days prior to that interview, Missouri governor Jay Nixon announced he was dispatching National Guard troops to Ferguson to restore order. That day, Joyce Manor, a young pop punk band from Torrance, California—just a five mile skateboard ride from Hermosa Beach, where Black Flag originated—tweeted the following: “In light of the events in Ferguson I can't help but feel guilty that Joyce Manor is such an apolitical band. Sickened by this world.”
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