>Mike wants folks to go home and wait to vote.
>
>Did he retract/explain and I missed it?
>
>LOL at the dude on Walking in the Snow begging
>protesters to stop at a police press conference.

I've seen this take elsewhere but what he said was, imo, way more complicated then that. He grounded the entire speech in the history of black Atlanta and the idea that burning your own home (i.e. the black community in Atlanta) was problematic. He didn't condemn or dismiss any of the actions of protestors including the looting/vandalism etc. He recognized the work of organizations and strategizing and yes, voting, in civil rights activism -- and basically said, we need to pause and figure out how to channel this moment in the best way possible without injuring our own in the process.

>
>I’m not hatin- used to be a huuuge fan.
>
>But dude is playing a character on these songs. Hes
>shown us multiple times now.

You mean there is not a one-to-one alignment of Killer Mike the emcee and Michael Santiago Render? *gasp* What a fake! Throw him out! Take away his realness card! He's no activist!

It's almost like the connection between art and life is complicated and that what is expressed in one does not translate perfectly to the other. Or like there might be another purpose to politically-charged lyrics than literal prescription of real life action. Something about theory and praxis, the ideal vs realpolitik -- I'm just guessing.

Seriously though, care for Atlanta and for the black community is substantially in character for Mike (whoever he is - god, art is so confusing!!!). It is 100% possible to reconcile what he said about Ferguson unrest a few years later ("Riots work") and what he said in Atlanta. And his deep investment in both tear-shit-up activism *and* more traditional forms of organizing and politics is pretty well documented. People are acting like they caught him in some sort of great lie when to me this was very much consistent with the full character and real life person that is Killer Mike. Like, this was the most Killer Mike speech ever.

And shit, it was really really really good.

-thebigfunk

~ i could still snort you under the table ~