Killer Mike explains NRA membership: Black people need protection, too!
The Trayvon Martin case has rap’s most outspoken MC fired up. Literally
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?“The sky is falling, nobody balling, they done gave back they guns/For some tickets to the playoffs, but the Hornets, they won/N***a, we slum, kept all the guns, I gotta protect my family...” - Big Boi, “Da Art of Storytellin’ Part 2”
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The death of Trayvon Martin has turned into a hot-button issue on so many levels: racial perception and stereotypes, self-defense, legal protection, gun rights, even the right to bear Skittles while wearing a hoodie. Atlanta’s own Killer Mike tackled all of it from his impassioned perspective on Wednesday’s episode of MTV’s RapFix.
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In the video above, he starts out explaining why he was angered by what he describes as Jesse Jackson’s attempt to turn Martin’s already loaded case into political posturing to advocate for tighter restrictions on assault rifles. But Martin was killed by a handgun, Mike points out, before dismissing it as another okey doke plan for black folk to rid themselves of guns at a time when they may need them most.
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Back in the late-’80s/early-’90s, when the proliferation of crack (thanks, CIA!) and the upsurge in gun violence went hand-in-hand in hoods across America, gun buyback programs were all the rage. The idea, of course, was to get deadly weapons off the streets. But the running joke/conspiracy theory at the time was that the only people tricked into relinquishing their guns were law-abiding citizens who’d need them most to protect themselves from criminals armed-to-the-teeth - or, worse yet, your friendly “neighborhood watch” paddy roller.