Sunday morning cleaning playlists vary from person to person, and for rapper Killer Mike, Jazz is the weekend’s closing act.
“When my wife and I get up on Sundays, we’re like our grandparents,” Mike said during a recent phone interview. “We start with gospel music and then the jazz of John Coltrane, Ralph Ellison, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Sphere Monk, and so many others, especially when we go riding around together in the S550 Coupe I bought her years ago.”
From his first introduction to jazz back in high school, Killer Mike knew he’d found something that clicked.
“My art teacher in ninth grade, Mr. Murray, put us on ‘A Love Supreme,’ and I’ve never stopped. It calms me and helps me clear my mind. It doesn’t require anything, just your willingness to relax and chill. It meant the world to me because it gave me an alternative to the music I love, which always had densely packed lyrics. With jazz, it just gives you time to feel the music differently.”
After coming off a clean sweep in all three rap categories in the 2024 Grammy Awards, the Atlanta wordsmith will perform a set of six shows at the Blue Note Los Angeles with two sets per night slated for Friday, Sept. 19, Saturday, Sept. 20 and Sunday, Sept. 21. Blue Note Los Angeles is a recent addition to the city’s music venues imported by the Blue Note brand known for regularly showcasing up-and-coming jazz, soul, hip-hop, R&B and funk artists in its legendary New York venue and others around the world including in Brazil, Japan, and Italy.
“I love Blue Note because it puts you in a room where you can see and feel your audience in a way that’s different from arenas,” Mike said. “I love doing arenas. God damn, I love doing arenas. I love the paycheck and the merch money from arenas, but there’s nothing like being in a room with a few hundred people and connecting with them over music and lyrics. That’s what I missed.
“I look forward to kicking it and conversing with my crowd. It’s like those old jazz performances. I get to do two performances a night, and I’m just going to try to give them an experience to remember. I’m going to add a couple of songs from ‘For Sinners And Saints’, and who knows, a guest or two might pop up.”
Jazz originated from the music of the Black communities in New Orleans, who settled there after the Civil War, along with other German, Irish, Spanish, and Caribbean immigrants who brought their musical backgrounds together, ultimately creating the genre. As the music evolved with many subgenres over time, other groups, including Jewish musicians and women, played a pivotal role in the development of jazz.
“Women in jazz are often not talked about, like some of the greats, in comparison to the men, but I am thankful for them because just like with rock and roll, they’ve helped pave the way right alongside that male contemporary,” Mike said. “Betty Carter, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday—all these women have played a significant role in my life and in jazz.”
Nina Simone, whose records often spin at the Killer Mike household, never truly claimed the title of a jazz musician. In fact, she rejected it, viewing it as a label tied to her race, and opted to define her sound as “Black classical music.”
Nonetheless, she helped shape the genre. According to Mike, Simone’s unorthodox style never sought to conform to musical conventions and voiced the angst and agony of Black people, while delivering it with an empowered and graceful persona.
“Nina was a warrior, not angry, but she was unmoved and undisturbed,” he said. “She has been an absolute inspiration in terms of being proud to be Black, and in terms of knowing that there’s a righteousness that comes with a call to be a liberator. You may have been victimized, but it’s impossible to feel like a victim listening to Nina.”
Through its many subgenres in the 1900s, Jazz was often evoked by Black artists as a means to express and maintain freedom. The genre also became America’s pop music in the Jazz Age of the 1920s-’30s, but as it often goes throughout history, naysayers were singing a different tune: The music was often associated with immoral lifestyles that were seen as a threat to traditional values, somewhat due to the musical performances that took place in speakeasies during prohibition.
“There’s just a rich tradition of liberation through jazz bringing people together,” Mike said. “Jazz clubs were used as an excuse to put marijuana prohibition forth because it was putting white and Black people in a room together. When people get in a room together, understanding starts to happen, and the government and powers that be did not want that understanding to happen. But jazz brought people together and is a music that liberates, and that is a revolutionary music.”
When it comes to the similarities between jazz and rap, Mike said jazz has been a cornerstone of rap with groups including A Tribe Called Quest, OutKast and Rakim, whose sample of the genre took rap to another level. He also noted that rap has a broad cultural appeal, similar to jazz, which can make it a target.
Mike wrote the foreword for author Erik Nielson’s 2019 book, “Rap on Trial: Race, Lyrics, and Guilt in America,” which presents research on nearly 700 cases from the late 1980s to the present, where rap lyrics have been used as evidence, primarily in criminal contexts. In some cases, the lyrics were presented as evidence at trial, while in others, they were used to justify charging a suspect, secure an indictment, compel a plea bargain, or inform sentencing recommendations.
The book argues that rap lyrics are an art form protected under the First Amendment, just as any other genre, and makes the case that lyrics from other genres are not persecuted in the same way. It questions if Johnny Cash’s hit “Folsom Prison Blues” should have led to a murder charge after Cash sang, “I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die.”
“Whether it’s rock and roll, rap, blues or jazz, there’s a vested interest in the people who run this country in influencing working-class folks to say ‘You guys are not alike,’” Mike said. “If you listen to the lyrics and look at the fellowship, we’re very similar. The only thing that separates us a lot of times is perceived class and skin color, when really we have the same masters and they have a vested interest in keeping both of us under their heel.”
In addition to his rap lyrics, Mike has used his platform to focus on social justice issues ranging from inequality, police brutality, and systemic racism. In the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, he endorsed Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and released a six-part YouTube series where he interviewed Sanders on a variety of issues.
He recently hit the road with his partner El-P as their duo project Run the Jewels. Together, they’ll open for the legendary Wu-Tang Clan, which he said was a dream, not just as a performer, but also as a longtime fan of the group.
In one of the New York City shows, Mike and El-P were featured in an Instagram reel talking with Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City. At the end of the video, Mike can be heard telling the photographers taking photos, “Enough with the pictures, I want to talk politics.”
“I’m about the business of politics every single day, because someone has to be,” Mike said. “I’m not just going to be a photo opportunity or a validation tool for you. The only thing I’ve ever been required to do is be honest in my art and be helpful where I can for greater society, much like jazz musicians have done. I plan to keep that tradition alive, because it has helped my community at its best, and it hurts when we’re silent.”
Some of these topics will be a focus of his new podcast, “Conversate with Killer Mike,” where he, alongside OutKast DJ Cutmaster Swiff, will host weekly unscripted conversations that delve into life stories, surprise co-hosts and life advice.
“Ultimately, what I want to do is give people other points of view and perspective to mull over,” he said. “We need more of that in this country. We need more conversation and less polarization with people who disagree with us, treating social ills or social movements as if we’re cheering for the Dallas Cowboys or the Commanders. This is beyond the ‘I’m on the right team.’ It’s ‘How do we figure out a way for Americans to engage in conversations that’s going to grow this republic into a better one for all?’”
Killer Mike
When: 7:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. Friday, Sep. 19, Saturday, Sept. 20 and Sunday, Sept. 21.
Where: Blue Note Los Angeles, 6372 W Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles.
Tickets: $65.87-$88.53 via bluenotejazz.com. A minimum purchase of $20 is required per person.