Killer Mike’s recognition as an elite wordsmith — he won his first solo Grammy Award this month — is long overdue. But a recent suggestion he made to independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that unmarried teenage fathers be made to enroll in trade school shows that the musical artist with clever lyrics, mature content and thoughtful song structure lacks credibility as a political commentator.
The musical artist with clever lyrics, mature content and thoughtful song structure lacks credibility as a political commentator.
Kennedy was recorded having a conversation with Black men at Killer Mike’s Atlanta barbershop. About an hour into the conversation, which can be found on the YouTube page called “Blacks for Kennedy,” Killer Mike (Michael Santiago Render), joins the group to offer Kennedy a bizarre and backward policy proposal.
“For young men and women who get pregnant as teenagers, this is the two-year plan: The first two years are debt-free. You don’t have to pay the government anything back so she doesn’t have to drag him into court and the court can say: ‘You owe us money for investing in your child in food programs and early Head Start programs,’ because, in those two years, he has the option, not the option, the demand and the command to then go to a trade school,” Killer Mike said. “You have to go to a trade school. It incentivizes the United States to do it because we need more tradespeople. We don’t have enough carpenters, we don’t have enough electricians, we don’t have enough people building roads.”
Kennedy doesn’t challenge any of this. Instead, he nods as if he’s having a serious and thoughtful policy discussion. According to the plan Killer Mike shares with Kennedy, after the young man completes trade school, the young parents would be given “incentives” to marry that include assistance on home loans. This, he argued, would strengthen the Black community.
There are many things wrong with this argument. First, boys of all colors and from all educational and financial levels get girls pregnant. Men of all educational and financial levels fail as husbands and fathers. Second, unmarried mothers are not necessarily “dragging” men to court; they’re making sure that there’s a legal agreement in place for the benefit of their children.
Third, suggesting that teenage fathers be made to go to trade school not only makes vocational education seem degrading (when there is beauty in all work) but the suggestion also implies that teenage parents ought not to be ambitious. I attend an Ivy League university, where I have had classes with single mothers, at least one of whom had her baby when she was a teen. A friend at my university is a single father whose daughter was born when he was in high school. He often brings his daughter with him to campus.
Beyond the problems with the particular idea Killer Mike expressed, there’s a bigger, even more disturbing problem to call out. He is continuing a trend of rappers allowing themselves to be used by presidential candidates looking to gain access into majority Black spaces. Kennedy, for his part, is continuing the trend of presidential candidates treating rappers as if they’re policy wonks.
In 2020, rapper Ice Cube, who once received a menacing letter from the FBI after his group N.W.A released “F— tha Police, met with then-president Donald Trump and pitched his platinum plan, which he said would benefit Black churches and Black businesses.
Rapper Kanye West, as he was then known, met with Trump at the White House in 2018 to discuss, according to White House press release, “manufacturing resurgence in America, prison reform, how to prevent gang violence, and what can be done to reduce violence in Chicago.” In 2019, Killer Mike endorsed the presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., by saying, “I am here as a proponent for political revolution.” According to Killer Mike, he and Sanders were two “angry radical guys finding common ground.” To be clear, rappers aren’t the only Black celebrities politicians have used in their attempts to boost their reputation with Black voters.
Kanye West, as he was then known, met with Trump at the White House in 2018 to discuss “manufacturing resurgence in America, prison reform, how to prevent gang violence, and what can be done to reduce violence in Chicago.”
From Richard Nixon successfully persuading Jackie Robinson to endorse him to Muhammad Ali endorsing Ronald Reagan, there’s a history of politicians seeking the endorsement of Black celebrities or trumpeting whatever endorsements come.
These politicians know, of course, that these celebrities are not political experts. But they also know that Black votes can help them win elections. Killer Mike seems to believe he’s a modern-day Booker T. Washington, who believed that vocational training for Black people should be the priority and that educating their minds in a classroom setting would be of little use. During one episode of the short-lived “Trigger Warning With Killer Mike” on Netflix in 2019, Killer Mike tells a group of kids who have big dreams, “You owe your parents not to dream big. You owe it to your parents to dream practical and start making money as soon as you can.” Looking at a Black boy who’s just said he wants to be president, Killer Mike responds, “You’re not going to be able to be president.” And then, “Do you guys know what a carpenter is?” I’m a Killer Mike fan who believes his love for Black people is sincere. He’s said before that his inspirations include Leonard Peltier, a member of the American Indian Movement, and Shirley Chislom, the first Black woman to be elected to Congress. His music is in the tradition of Black Power advocates, such as Marcus Garvey and Martin Delany, who promoted financial freedom and Black utopias. His intelligence is obvious. It’s because he’s so intelligent that it was all the more frustrating to see Killer Mike telling Kennedy that what America really needs is more Black carpenters, electricians, and builders of roads — and to imply that we don’t need more Black professionals. It was also frustrating to see Kennedy seeming to agree with that argument. Not only does Killer Mike need to re-evaluate his opinions about education, but he also needs to acknowledge that politicians like Kennedy are always looking to exploit the popularity of some Black celebrity to win Black people’s votes. Politicians are not wrong for wanting the votes of people who listen to hip-hop, but they can court those voters by promoting thoughtful, well-crafted policy from those with a history of policy-making, not treating every utterance by a popular rapper as deserving of serious attention. Killer Mike won best rap album, best rap song and best rap performance at the Grammys this year because he’s good at putting words together over beats. But that doesn’t mean his policy ideas should be given attention — not even by long-shot candidates for president of the United States.
Darryl Robertson
Darryl Robertson is a freelance writer and research assistant for The New York Times. He is also a Justice-in-Education scholar at Columbia University. His research interests include hip-hop and understanding how the Black Power movement services its communities. He is also interested in understanding how social, geographical and historical factors contribute to hip-hop. 
