• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • NEWS+OPINIONS
    • NEWS TO US
    • COLUMNS
      • APPARENT HORIZON
      • DEAR READER
      • Close
    • LONGFORM FEATURES
    • OPINIONS
    • EDITORIAL
    • Close
  • ARTS+ENTERTAINMENT
    • FILM
    • MUSIC
    • COMEDY
    • PERFORMING ARTS
    • VISUAL ARTS
    • Close
  • DINING+DRINKING
    • EATS
    • SIPS
    • BOSTON BETTER BEER BUREAU
    • Close
  • LIFESTYLE
    • CANNABIS
      • TALKING JOINTS MEMO
      • Close
    • WELLNESS
    • GTFO
    • Close
  • STUFF TO DO
  • TICKETS
  • ABOUT US
    • ABOUT
    • MASTHEAD
    • ADVERTISE
    • Close

Dig Bos

The Dig - Greater Boston's Alternative News Source

OPEN MIKE: KILLER MIKE DROPS KNOWLEDGE AT MIT LECTURE

Written by MARTIN CABALLERO Posted April 29, 2015 Filed Under: MUSIC

MU_KillerMike(MartinCaballero)_728
Photo by Martin Caballero

Before delivering an expansive two-hour-plus lecture on race relations at MIT last Friday night, Killer Mike broke down the reason for his presence with a simple appeal.

 

“I believe in smart people,” said the veteran 40-year-old Atlanta rapper, best known as one-half of Run the Jewels, sitting in front of about a dozen invitees to his pre-lecture media session in an MIT classroom. “The only reason why I’m running around speaking at colleges now and not after a book to hawk is that I believe that you all are intelligent. I believe that intelligent people are too quiet. I believe we aren’t brave enough, I believe we aren’t screaming at the top of our lungs, I believe we don’t have the courage to say ‘That’s stupid.’”

 

Luckily for everyone in attendance, Mike doesn’t suffer from such hangups. He opened his talk by dismissing an unnamed blogger who protested his invitation (“No one gives a fuck about your blog,” he surmised, adding “I’m here because I’m qualified to be here”), setting the tone for a discussion in which he laid out, with both amusement and anger, the contemporary challenges he hopes the aforementioned “smart people” can overcome.

 

“The only thing that’s going to solve the problems in this country and in this world is if we admit the problems don’t exist outside of us. They exist within us,” he said in an opening statement, and then he proceeded to explore those problems in balanced detail. He decried the use of foreign-occupation tactics by domestic police departments, but, the son of a cop himself, refused to target cops as inherently antagonistic or racist. While praising their desire to be involved, he distanced his own work from Kanye West’s and Azalea Banks’ respective dabblings in politics: “As an activist and an organizer, they get shit wrong sometimes.” Even a question about the impact of the Olympics in Atlanta brought a measured response, with Mike praising youth-oriented initiatives based around the games while warning, “You’re going to see poor people pushed out” of the city.

 

For Mike however, this was more than just an intellectual ego massage; it was a call to action. “However you need to do it,” he said in closing, “find a way to connect with people who culturally you didn’t come up with, because all that’s going to do is help you grow as a human being, and ultimately that’s good for all of humanity.”

 

MARTIN CABALLERO
+ posts
    This author does not have any more posts.

Filed Under: MUSIC Tagged With: atlanta, Baltimore, freddie grey, intelligent, killer mike, lecture, MIT, race relations, racism, riots

WHAT’S NEW

State Wire: Advocates Push For 'Tax Fairness' With Expanded Child Tax Credits

State Wire: Advocates Push For ‘Tax Fairness’ With Expanded Child Tax Credits

Mass Lawmakers Hear Testimony On Cannabis Testing, Medical Access

Mass Lawmakers Hear Testimony On Cannabis Testing, Medical Access

Massachusetts Bill, Victim Advocates Call For Coordinated Date-Rape Drug Response

Massachusetts Bill, Victim Advocates Call For Coordinated Date-Rape Drug Response

Report: Fewer Youth Transition Out Of Massachusetts Foster Care System

Report: Fewer Youth Transition Out Of Massachusetts Foster Care System

State Wire: Activists Urge Congress To Raise Debt Ceiling, Resist Spending Cuts

State Wire: Activists Urge Congress To Raise Debt Ceiling, Resist Spending Cuts

Dancing On Banana Peels: Life On Lifetime Parole In Massachusetts

Dancing On Banana Peels: Life On Lifetime Parole In Massachusetts

Primary Sidebar

LOCAL EVENTS

AAN Wire


Most Popular

  • AG Investigating BPD To Determine If “Gang Unit” Engages In “Unconstitutional Policing”
  • Deep Cuts Brings Sandwiches, Craft Beer, And Live Music To Medford
  • Over Yondr: Are Cell Phone Pouches At Shows Liberating, Dangerous, Or Annoying?
  • Daring Greatly: TikTok Star Alden McWayne (aka Gucci Pineapple) On Scheming And Dreaming
  • Dancing On Banana Peels: Life On Lifetime Parole In Massachusetts

Footer

Social Buttons

DigBoston facebook DigBoston Twitter DigBoston Instagram

Masthead

About

Advertise

Customer Service

About Us

DigBoston is a one-stop nexus for everything worth doing or knowing in the Boston area. It's an alt-weekly, it's a website, it's an email blast, it's a twitter account, it's that cool party that you were at last night ... hey, you're reading it, so it's gotta be good. For advertising inquiries: sales@digboston.com To reach editorial (and for inquiries about internship opportunities): editorial@digboston.com