ALBUM REVIEW: Killer Mike - R.A.P. Music

I've never really had a religious experience, in a religious place.
Closest I've ever come to seeing or feeling God is listening to rap music.  Rap music is my religion.  Amen.

These days, there are rarely words that resonate with me perfectly.  To me, Michael Render's words at the beginning of the title track is the truest shit I ever heard.  To some, it may be hard to understand, especially if you are not a big fan of rap.  Listening to rap growing up provided sympathy, compassion, understanding, comfort, relaxation, community - well, pretty much everything that religion provides for others.  When you have preachers, parents, or both telling you what you should do as if they have never done it, rap always spoke to me as if it understood how I felt and spoke to me with honesty.  Rap did not judge me.  In fact, it empowered me to do the scariest thing to do these days - be myself.  At the end of the day, any music genre can be this to others, and it probably is.  Unfortunately, of all music genres, rap music always receives harsh criticism from in the media and politics, many of whom simply criticize out of their own ignorance, whether intentional or not, of hip hop culture. Now, there is definitely some rap out there that lacks some integrity and creativity, but it is always the music that has integrity that lasts the test of time.  With his sixth album entitled R.A.P. Music (Rebellious African People Music),  Michael Render aka Killer Mike has delivered such an album.

First, let me apologize again for being mad, mad late on this review.  In fact, I deserve to poke my eyes out with toothpicks.  When I was writing the review for his last album, Killer Mike had already released this album over 6 months beforehand.  This album should not have slipped under my radar but it did.  Once again, however, it's better late than never.  What changed between Pl3dge and R.A.P. Music for Killer Mike?  The biggest change is that Killer Mike elected to have underground hero and producer El-P handle all the beats for this album.  I was definitely a little put off by that, especially with how I felt Pl3dge was Mike's most complete album production-wise with more than one producer behind the boards.  In addition, I was not sure whether El-P's offbeat style would match with Mike's streetwise, aggressive rhetoric.  However, I remember reading about the same skepticism when Ice Cube enlisted the Bomb Squad to produce his first solo album after leaving N.W.A.  It ended up working so well that people were still clamoring for them to collaborate again, and with R.A.P. Music, it is no different.

Killer Mike waste no time with the opening track "Big Beast" featuring Bun B, T.I. and Trouble, opening the album with a fury and intensity that we have not heard since Amerikkka Most Wanted.  Man, I wish other artists had the guts to kick off an album like this:

Hardcore G shit, homie I don't play around 
Ain't shit sweet 'bout the Peach, this Atlanta, clown 
Home of the dealers and the strippers in the clubs doe 
Catch you comin out that Magic City with a snub, hoe 
Lurkin in the club, o' tourists muh'fuckers 
Welcome to Atlanta - up the jewelry, muh'fucker! 
These monkey niggaz lookin for some Luda and Jermaine 
And all that nigga found was a Ruger and some pain
...

I know some dumb country niggaz but them niggaz ain't weak
Know they dress and look the part but them niggaz ain't G
I don't make dance music, this is R.A.P.
Opposite, of that sucka shit they play on TV

Both Bun B and especially T.I. provide stellar verses, and Trouble nails the chorus.  What is most surprising is El-P's production.  The beat is uptempo, hits hard, and perfectly compliments Mike as he puts a lyrical beatdown on the listener.  Any doubt on the Killer Mike/El-P chemistry is now gone, even if it might fall short at some point.  Fortunately, it never does.  The following track "Untitled" featuring Scar has El-P slowing things down with a deep bass pattern alternating between two octaves and congas drumming in the background.  The beat itself is hypnotizing, but Mike makes sure his drops something to chew on as well.

You are witnessing elegance in the form of a black elephant 
Smoking white rhino, on terraces 
Will I die slain like my King by a terrorist? 
Will my woman be Coretta, take my name and cherish it? 
Or will she Jackie O., drop the Kennedy, remarry it? 
My sisters say it's necessary, on some Cleopatra shit 
My grandmama said, "Nope, never, that is sacrilege" 
I tend to agree because the thought is so disparaging
The Lord give a load, you got to carry it like Mary did 
That's why I'm givin honor to, all these baby mamas 
It takes a woman's womb to make a Christ or Dali Lama 
The world might take that child, turn that child into a monster 
The Lord take a monster and fashion him a saint 
I present you Malcolm X for those sayin that He can't 
Sayin that he won't, when I know He will 
You usually don't know it's you until you gettin killed, f'real

The highlights of this album are all over the place, but if you ask most fans about this album, they will say "Reagan" is its crown jewel.  Behind El-P haunting, cinematic production as well as audio quotes from former president Ronald Reagan himself, Killer Mike weaves some of the most honest commentary on hip hop culture and recognizes the responsibility of members of the culture for its current state:

The ballot or the bullet, some freedom or some bullshit 
Will we ever do it big, or keep just settling for lil' shit? 
We brag on havin bread, but none of us are bakers 
We all talk havin greens, but none of us own acres 
If none of us own acres, and none of us grow wheat 
Then who will feed our people when our people need to eat? 
So it seems our people starve from lack of understanding 
Cause all we seem to give them is some ballin and some dancin 
And some talkin 'bout our car and imaginary mansions 
We should be indicted for bullshit we inciting
Hand the children death and pretend that it's exciting 
We are advertisements for agony and pain 
We exploit the youth, we tell them to join a gang 
We tell them dope stories, introduce them to the game 
Just like Oliver North introduced us to cocaine 
In the 80's when them bricks came on military planes

After spitting the first verse over a steady two-note piano loop, the beat changes up, and Killer Mike brings it all back to how the Reagan era affected the current hip hop culture:

The end of the Reagan Era, I'm like 'leven, twelve, or 
Old enough to understand the shit'll change forever 
They declared the war on drugs, like a war on terror 
But it really did was let the police terrorize whoever 
But mostly black boys, but they would call us "niggers"
And lay us on our belly, while they fingers on they triggers 
They boots was on our head, they dogs was on our crotches 
And they would beat us up if we had diamonds on our watches 
And they would take our drugs and money as they pick our pockets 
I guess that that's the privilege of policing for some profit 
But thanks to Reaganomics, prisons turned to profits 
Cause free labor's the cornerstone of U.S. economics 
Cause slavery was abolished, unless you are in prison 
You think I am bullshittin? Then read the 13th Amendment 
Involuntary servitude and slavery it prohibits 
That's why they givin drug offenders time in double digits 
Ronald Reagan was an actor, not at all a factor 
Just an employee of the country's real masters 
Just like the Bushes, Clinton and Obama 
Just another talking head tellin lies on teleprompters
...
I'm droppin off the grid before they pump the lead 
I leave you with four words: I'm glad Reagan dead

I am sure Killer Mike's last line creeps up the spine of all the conservative pundits that worship Reagan and his administration.  While they do speak highly of Reagan's legacy, they often ignore the horrible effects of some of his policies, whether Ronald Reagan was directly responsible or not.  I tweeted once that listening to this song is like listen to Killer Mike tell a scary story around a campfire and how the truth is scarier than fiction (Killer Mike actually retweeted me! Yaah!).  I still feel that that's accurate, so make sure that you listen to this song with the lights on.

Even though Killer Mike does not shy away from social commentary, he shows on this album that he has other sides.  He can tell a funny story about a guy smuggling weed on an airplane ("Jojo Chillin'").  He can spit a fast-paced freestyle ("Go!") and channeling some old school Ice Cube in addressing crooked cops storming his home ("Don't Die").  He gets down and dirty with El-P ("Butane (Champion Anthem)") and deliver a heartfelt tribute to his late grandfather ("Willie Burke Sherwood").  El-P is right there for the ride, providing the backdrop for Mike's expression as his trusty sidekick on this album.  It's El-P behind the boards that shines on "Anywhere But Here" featuring Emily Panic, as he creates the somber mood where Mike laments on that harsh realities in which we live:

Moving through New York City in a black seven fifty 
Like Batman moving through Gotham 
Dodging pot holes as I gently move through 
Harlem with my wheels on slalom 
Pain in my eyes as I'm passing the place 
Where they found Sean Bell and they shot him (Queens) 
Forty one times, he committed no crime 
But I guess life ain't Times Square 
But in the city that's gritty where the bottom lives shitty 
And the mayor's a billionaire 
You learn Manhattan keep on making it and Brooklyn keep on taking it 
Cause life just ain't that fair

By the time you reach the end of the album, your appetite will be satisfied yet you still will be scraping at the bottom of the plate to get whatever morsels that are still left.  Killer Mike and El-P was able to craft an album in 2012 that people SHOULD be making, and if it was not for Kendrick Lamar's Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City, this would be unanimously be the best album of 2012.  El-P proved a lot about his talent behind the boards, and I believe has and will open up a lot of opportunities in the future.  I am especially proud of Killer Mike because I have watched his career since he came on the scene in 2000 and seen him grow into the complete emcee.  Mike has released two straight albums that were one of the best albums of 2011 and 2012, and there seems to be no signs of slowing down.  Perhaps this will not last forever, but I do know one thing -  Killer Mike is in the zone right now.  Treat the mic like a basketball, pass it to him, get out the lane, and let him take it to the basket.  I would hate to be the person that gets in his way.

P.S. - I am trying to win tickets to see Killer Mike and El-P Wednesday night 8/14 at Webster Hall, NYC.  If anyone can put in a good word, I would appreciate it.