Killer Mike stirred up controversy this weekend when the NRA’s YouTube channel published an interview with the Run the Jewels rapper in which he described the “woke” anti-gun activists as “lackeys of the progressive movements” and disparaged the racial inequality inherent in protests like this weekend’s March For Our Lives demonstrations. He also said that he had forbidden his kids from walking out of school during protests earlier this month.
On Sunday, he posted videos to Twitter apologizing for the interview, saying that he had sat down to talk about “black gun ownership” with a group he “might not always agree him.” He lamented that the “interview was used a week later by NRATV to disparage a very noble campaign that I actually support,” saying that he “respects the leadership” of the March For Our Lives youth activists.
“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,” Mike continued. That was unfair to you and it was wrong, and it disparaged some very noble work you’re doing.”
El-P then posted his own response to his bandmate’s comments on Twitter. The producer said he and Mike “are our own men and speak for ourselves individually” and that they are “not afraid to disagree with each other.” He wrote that he was “personally incredibly inspired and blown away by the bravery and emotion” of the youth protestors and added that they “have an ally and friend in me.”
“I don’t drop friends from my life just because I disagree with them or how they went about getting a message out, even when it goes wrong,” El-P continued in a second note. “[N]ot when I know their heart and know for a fact that they care more and try harder to help people on a daily basis than most do in a lifetime.” He said that their differences in opinion are “vast and often hotly debated,” but echoed that he “cannot and will not ever turn my back on this man. he wouldn’t turn his back on me. or you.”
Mike quote-tweeted El-P’s comments, adding: “I am so humbled to be your friend, brother & group member…I apologize for my bull in a china store like tendencies! I drive u nuts but i promise u I love ya brother & will always do what’s right. Thank u for your underserved suffering.”
Read and watch all of the statements below.
I hope this clears some stuff up. Love and Respect to all. Part 1 pic.twitter.com/pq977HEG7A
— Killer Mike (@KillerMike) March 25, 2018
— Killer Mike (@KillerMike) March 25, 2018
2 things i need to say. pic.twitter.com/q8GrxQeWPs
— el-p (@therealelp) March 26, 2018
I am so humbled to be your friend, brother & group member. I am so grateful to have an ally always. I apologize for my bull in a china store like tendencies! I drive u nuts but i promise u I love ya brother & will always do what’s right. Thank u for your underserved suffering https://t.co/VwOyCcVkls
— Killer Mike (@KillerMike) March 26, 2018
