Killer Mike

9th April 2021

Killer Mike first joined Bullseye all the way back in 2009. Since then, he’s formed the supergroup Run the Jewels with partner El-P, he’s appeared in films like Baby Driver and he hosted his own television series “Trigger Warning with Killer Mike” on Netflix. The Grammy-awarded rapper also finds time to stay pretty politically active. We revisit our 2019 conversation with Mike where he sat down with us to chat about freestyling for Big Boi, his college regrets and style-flipping as a 30+ rapper. Plus, he’ll tell us why the south still has something to say. That’s on the next Bullseye.

Episode notes

Photo Credit: Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for DIRECTV

Killer Mike on sustaining a long career in hip hop and beyond

Killer Mike has been in the game a long time. 

Discovered by Big Boi, he made his debut on Outkast’s 2000 LP Stankonia. And he made it look easy. Born and raised in Georgia, he attended historical Morehouse College before turning his attention towards hip hop as a career choice. Right out of the gate, he won his first Grammy for his work on Outkast’s “The Whole World” alongside Big Boi and Andre 3000. 

From there, he’s just been cranking out great records, appearing on classic tracks like Bone Crusher’s “Never Scared” and collaborating with groundbreaking musicians like his work with partner El-P in their group Run the Jewels. 

He’s also appeared on the small and large screen in films like Baby Driver and on several Adult Swim shows. In 2019, he hosted the Netflix series, “Trigger Warning with Killer Mike.” 

In the show, Killer Mike tackles some of the most complicated racial and societal issues in America through social experiments. In the series, he tries to unpack subjects like religion, the black economy, education, and gangs.

We revisit our 2019 conversation with Mike where he sat down with us to chat about  freestyling for Big Boi, his college regrets and style-flipping as a 30+ rapper. Plus, he’ll tell us why the south still has something to say. That’s on the next Bullseye.

 

This interview originally aired in 2019

In this episode...

Senior Producer
Producer
Maximum Fun Producer
Maximum Fun Production Fellow
Video Editor

Guests

  • Killer Mike

About the show

Bullseye is a celebration of the best of arts and culture in public radio form. Host Jesse Thorn sifts the wheat from the chaff to bring you in-depth interviews with the most revered and revolutionary minds in our culture.

Bullseye has been featured in Time, The New York Times, GQ and McSweeney’s, which called it “the kind of show people listen to in a more perfect world.” Since April 2013, the show has been distributed by NPR.

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Senior Producer

Producer

Maximum Fun Producer

Maximum Fun Production Fellow

Video Editor

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