Killer Mike, appearing under his given name Michael Render, was a guest on Huffington Post Live this past Wednesday (April 1) speaking with host Ricky Camilleri about the recent cases of Brandon “Tiny Doo” Duncan and McKinley “Mac Fifth” Phipps. Duncan and Phipps had their rap lyrics used against them in court to tie in their reported gang affiliations. Despite not being responsible for a series of murders or even being charged as such, the pair was put on blast due to an obscure law.
According to the Huffington Post:
“It signals to me that Jim Crow is very much alive,” rapper Killer Mike told Huffington Post Live host Ricky Camilleri on Wednesday. “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 has been vocal on prosecutors’ use of rap lyrics in court and condemns the act. To him, it signals the overall criminalization of black boys, which he says starts at a very young age.
“It used as a tool to literally hang our boys,” he said. “It is wrong, it is evil, it is vicious, it is maniacal and it is systemic.”