Run the Jewels
March 18, 2025 5:52 AM Subscribe
Their empathy, defiance, and humor are inspiring. Edward Abbey said, "Fight your enemies with passion and laughter". For me, RTJ embodies that ideal. Also, their music is just rad.
posted by yumegari at 7:24 AM on March 18 [6 favorites]
posted by yumegari at 7:24 AM on March 18 [6 favorites]
I'll never understand the left-leaning people in my circles who love the music of obviously right-wing, Republican platformer Killer Mike.
posted by haileris23 at 9:49 AM on March 18 [1 favorite]
posted by haileris23 at 9:49 AM on March 18 [1 favorite]
Essence:
At a Bernie Sanders rally on Sunday, the rapper endorsed the Vermont State Senator as the best of candidate to lead the nation on a “political revolution.”posted by Lemkin at 10:19 AM on March 18 [2 favorites]
“In my heart of hearts, I truly believe that Senator Bernie Sanders is the best man to lead this country,” he said. “I believe it because he, unlike any other candidate, said he would like to restore the voter rights act. He, unlike any other candidate, said I wish to end this illegal war on drugs that disproportionately targets minorities and poor. Unlike any other candidate in my life, he says that education should be free for every citizen of this country.”
> I'll never understand the left-leaning people in my circles who love the music of obviously right-wing, Republican platformer Killer Mike.
Killer Mike has a whole song about how he wishes he could've killed Ronald Reagan.
The entire thrust of this piece is that he's bad because he met with Brian Kemp and Herschel Walker, "legitimizing" them. It's absurd to think that makes him a right winger.
posted by dis_integration at 11:13 AM on March 18 [9 favorites]
Killer Mike has a whole song about how he wishes he could've killed Ronald Reagan.
The entire thrust of this piece is that he's bad because he met with Brian Kemp and Herschel Walker, "legitimizing" them. It's absurd to think that makes him a right winger.
posted by dis_integration at 11:13 AM on March 18 [9 favorites]
I'll never understand the left-leaning people in my circles who love the music of obviously right-wing, Republican platformer Killer Mike.
I think Killer Mike has somewhat idiosyncratic politics that don't fit well in the mode of Democratic Party liberalism--even a lot of his music sort of sounds like a soft form of small business Chamber of Commerce Republicanism. Which makes sense: he's a rapper, and rap music is in many ways kind of a caricature of normative American cultural values (cf misogyny, guns, material wealth, foul words, dad jokes). It just adds the subversion of, "I succeeded on your shitty terms despite how hard you tried to keep me down."
To me this article seems to be more centered in the debate about platforming, which is an interesting debate that involves people ranging from KM to Gavin Newsom to Bernie Sanders, but I don't think where people land in that conversation lends to easy labeling of right wing or left wing or whatever.
My guess is that the comments about Kemp are selected out of context from the longer interview. But it seems in keeping with what KM's personal project is, which is to become a person publicly engaged in the political conversation who can pivot at some future point to a few different options (local or state or national politics, a new business venture, television commentary, etc.) I think he is also clearly trying to turn the heat up on Abrams here--I imagine he voted for her but was disappointed with her taking certain votes for granted, etc. We all have read this story in the newspaper a million times, it's not totally about a turn to the right or any kind of right wing identity.
posted by kensington314 at 12:31 PM on March 18 [4 favorites]
I think Killer Mike has somewhat idiosyncratic politics that don't fit well in the mode of Democratic Party liberalism--even a lot of his music sort of sounds like a soft form of small business Chamber of Commerce Republicanism. Which makes sense: he's a rapper, and rap music is in many ways kind of a caricature of normative American cultural values (cf misogyny, guns, material wealth, foul words, dad jokes). It just adds the subversion of, "I succeeded on your shitty terms despite how hard you tried to keep me down."
To me this article seems to be more centered in the debate about platforming, which is an interesting debate that involves people ranging from KM to Gavin Newsom to Bernie Sanders, but I don't think where people land in that conversation lends to easy labeling of right wing or left wing or whatever.
My guess is that the comments about Kemp are selected out of context from the longer interview. But it seems in keeping with what KM's personal project is, which is to become a person publicly engaged in the political conversation who can pivot at some future point to a few different options (local or state or national politics, a new business venture, television commentary, etc.) I think he is also clearly trying to turn the heat up on Abrams here--I imagine he voted for her but was disappointed with her taking certain votes for granted, etc. We all have read this story in the newspaper a million times, it's not totally about a turn to the right or any kind of right wing identity.
posted by kensington314 at 12:31 PM on March 18 [4 favorites]
I'll never understand the left-leaning people in my circles who love the music of obviously right-wing, Republican platformer Killer Mike.
a.) you clearly haven’t listened to much of his music or followed his earlier activism, he’s ended up kind of politically incoherent (in the way of quite a lot of “political” artists I guess) and really let down left-wing fans over a few things but it’s actually very easy to figure out why people took him as left-wing in the early RTJ days
b.) this is without exaggeration one of the silliest pieces I have read about anything in ages
posted by atoxyl at 12:49 PM on March 18 [5 favorites]
a.) you clearly haven’t listened to much of his music or followed his earlier activism, he’s ended up kind of politically incoherent (in the way of quite a lot of “political” artists I guess) and really let down left-wing fans over a few things but it’s actually very easy to figure out why people took him as left-wing in the early RTJ days
b.) this is without exaggeration one of the silliest pieces I have read about anything in ages
posted by atoxyl at 12:49 PM on March 18 [5 favorites]
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posted by dis_integration at 7:05 AM on March 18 [2 favorites]