Run The Jewels’ Killer Mike has issued an apology for an interview that he gave to the National Rifle Association (NRA), which ran on the same day as the March For Our Lives rally.
In it, he defended gun ownership and said that he’d discouraged his own children from taking part in school walk-outs in protest over gun violence. He has subsequently issued two videos where he apologises for the interview.
“That interview was used a week later by NRATV to disparage a very noble campaign that I actually support,” he said. “I’m sorry that an interview I did about a minority – black people in this country – and gun rights was used as a weapon against you guys. That was unfair to you and it was wrong, and it disparaged some very noble work you’re doing.”
I hope this clears some stuff up. Love and Respect to all. Part 1 pic.twitter.com/pq977HEG7A
— Killer Mike (@KillerMike) March 25, 2018
In the interview for NRATV, Killer Mike turned his focus on the supposed hypocrisy of left-wing views concerning gun ownership. “You’re a lackey of the progressive movement, because you’ve never disagreed with the people who tell you what to do.”
He continued: “I told my kids on the school walkout: ‘I love you – if you walk out that school, walk out my house …’ We are not a family that jumps on every single thing an ally of ours does, because some stuff we just don’t agree with.”
His Run The Jewels bandmate El-P has defended him while acknowledging that differences exist between them.
“He stands up when others can’t or wont,” he wrote on Twitter. “He tries when others don’t. Time and time again. This is a guy who’s made me cry from the power of his words one minute and made me spit whatever liquid I was drinking out of my face as I convulsed the next.”
He continued: “I don’t drop friends from my life because I disagree with them or the way they went about getting a message out, even if it goes wrong. Not when I know their heart and know for a fact that they care more and try harder to help other people on a daily basis than most do in a lifetime.”
Photo: John Gilleese/REX/Shutterstock
