Killer Mike and El-P, who make up the underground rap group Run the Jewels, are using their platform to promote gun rights and privacy.
Reason magazine noticed Mike’s sharp commentary on Ferguson on Fox Business’ The Independents, and brought them in for an interview to delve more into their politics and philosophy.
Mike told Reason he is concerned about the simultaneous threats of restrictions on gun rights and police militarization in America: “I do worry about my gun being taken. I do worry about these roadblocks that are popping up for DUIs illegally, these checkpoints in my community. I worry about that. We’re promised not to be treated like that domestically. We’re promised that our police cannot act like the military does. But we have allowed not only military machines but military tactics. We’re funding local municipalities with drug raids.”
Mike called on the NRA, of which he is a member, to stand up to over-militarization, suggesting that it threatens the rights of gun-owning citizens: “Why aren’t the people who belong to the organization I belong to, the NRA, why aren’t they there when the first tank is rolled out to say: You know what, some of our members might not agree with how that community votes on gun policy. But we shouldn’t allow their child to be shot down and then tanks to be marched down in their community, if we really are the guys who preach vehemently against that.”
“You have a safeguard against tyranny, and you wish to give that up,” Mike said. “How foolish are you, you know, how foolish are you?”
El-P, who has long rapped about government surveillance, said that since Edward Snowden’s whistle-blowing on NSA spying, “That layer of the illusion of the way that we are living is pulled back a little bit, and some of the truth and the ugliness of reality is starting to rear its head in such an obvious way that people who are not normally disposed to think about it or to really question it are being forced to.”
But he also had a caveat about their role as musicians: “That being said, I also f–ing smoke weed and drink like a mother—ing insane man because I’m being driven mad like we all are to some degree, you know what I mean? Like, we’re just regular dudes, we’re musicians, we’re rappers, we’re just making music, we’re not politicians, we’re don’t have your education, we probably don’t even have your real knowledge of perspective. We just have our perception and we tune in to that.”
Run the Jewels follows an unorthodox business model, releasing their second album last month for free download and generating money from their shows rather than album sales.
Read the full interview here. Their album “Run the Jewels 2” is available for free here.
