Joe Rogan Experience #1230 - Killer Mike

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   Four, three, two, one.…

   1. JRJoe Rogan0:01

      Four, three, two, one. Boom! So I took a four and a half hour ride down to San Diego, 'cause my friend Brendan was filming a Showtime special.

   2. KMKiller Mike0:12

      Yeah.

   3. JRJoe Rogan0:12

      And it was Run the Jewels the entire way down and back.

   4. KMKiller Mike0:15

      Thank you, man.

   5. JRJoe Rogan0:15

      It was awesome.

   6. KMKiller Mike0:16

      Thank you.

   7. JRJoe Rogan0:17

      Woo! It was-

   8. KMKiller Mike0:18

      I, I wish could work out as hard as people work out to our music.

   9. JRJoe Rogan0:21

      (laughs)

   10. KMKiller Mike0:23

       Um-

   11. JRJoe Rogan0:23

       Seriously, man.

   12. KMKiller Mike0:23

       I'd be- I'd be more ... I've lost 31 pounds, but I'd be 90 pounds down easy now.

   13. JRJoe Rogan0:26

       That was one of the things that I was saying.

   14. KMKiller Mike0:28

       (laughs)

   15. JRJoe Rogan0:28

       This is workout music.

   16. KMKiller Mike0:29

       Yeah. It is. It is. And Ellen and I are chubby as two fat little bears.

   17. JRJoe Rogan0:34

       (laughs)

   18. KMKiller Mike0:34

       But ... (laughs)

   19. JRJoe Rogan0:35

       Well, you were saying you lost 31 pounds though. That's-

   20. KMKiller Mike0:36

       Yeah, 31 down.

   21. JRJoe Rogan0:37

       That's an accomplishment.

   22. KMKiller Mike0:37

       Th- I maybe picked up three over the holiday. (laughs)

   23. JRJoe Rogan0:40

       Yeah.

   24. KMKiller Mike0:40

       But I'm on, I'm on my path. I really am. Shouts out to Al Claiborne, um, who's from out here, who's a hell of a trainer. If I had his discipline, I'd already be 100 pounds down, but the goal is 100 in the next 18 months.

   25. JRJoe Rogan0:50

       You can do it.

   26. KMKiller Mike0:51

       Yeah, I know.

   27. JRJoe Rogan0:52

       100%.

   28. KMKiller Mike0:52

       I know. Okay. I gotta-

   29. JRJoe Rogan0:53

       100%.

   30. KMKiller Mike0:53

       I'm ... I just- just eat bad and got lazy. That's all.
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   (laughs) …

   1. JRJoe Rogan15:00

      Live Crew was just too much.

   2. KMKiller Mike15:01

      (laughs)

   3. JRJoe Rogan15:01

      They were like, they were drawing a line in the sand.

   4. KMKiller Mike15:02

      Yeah.

   5. JRJoe Rogan15:02

      Huge... But it was, it's a crazy thing to do when something's very popular, you know? Like...

   6. KMKiller Mike15:07

      Yeah. It's, uh-

   7. JRJoe Rogan15:08

      You know?

   8. KMKiller Mike15:08

      ... you know, but, you know, they, they also make examples out of the popular.

   9. JRJoe Rogan15:12

      Yeah.

   10. KMKiller Mike15:12

       You know, I just found out what the, what the, the monkey on a stick thing meant with, with apparently monkeys in India wile out so farmers will kill one monkey and put his head on a stick so other monkeys can know, like, "Hey, this is dangerous to do," right? So essentially famous people, you know, me, you, Luther Campbell, Lenny Bruce, you know, R- Rodney Dangerfield, uh, Andrew Dice Clay, Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, what you become is something to symbolize what will happen if you dare step out of line with social order.

   11. JRJoe Rogan15:39

       Mm-hmm.

   12. KMKiller Mike15:40

       So you, your head being on a stick is r- is less about actually charging you for crimes and more about m- keeping the rest of the public in fear. It's a lynching.

   13. JRJoe Rogan15:48

       Yeah.

   14. KMKiller Mike15:48

       And a lot of times we don't want to say that, but i- i- it really is. You know what I mean?

   15. JRJoe Rogan15:51

       So do you think they see something like 2 Live Crew come up? They never had a rap band like... And any kind of band like 2 Live Crew, right?

   16. KMKiller Mike15:57

       No, they never had that.

   17. JRJoe Rogan15:57

       And then they're worried what's next. So let's nip this shit-

   18. KMKiller Mike16:00

       Exactly. Exa- they'll snip it in the bud.

   19. JRJoe Rogan16:01

       ... in the bud. Put the head in the stick.

   20. KMKiller Mike16:02

       Put their head on a stick right there in the yard.

   21. JRJoe Rogan16:04

       (sighs)

   22. KMKiller Mike16:04

       And, and thank God, Luke fa- I can remember channel 2 or 5, ABC or CBS, I don't... They were, they were, they were getting off the plane in my town. I'm a kid watching this, what, 12, 13 years old. And the news reporters just went TMZ style, just put it in their face. And I can remember Brother Marquis just pulling up a Playboy magazine and the titties-

   23. JRJoe Rogan16:24

       (laughs)

   24. KMKiller Mike16:24

       ... being right there on the screen. I'm like, "Yes," (laughs) 'cause it's live TV.

   25. JRJoe Rogan16:27

       Yeah.

   26. KMKiller Mike16:28

       And the reporter almost dropped the camera-

   27. JRJoe Rogan16:29

       (laughs)

   28. KMKiller Mike16:29

       ... you know, trying to get it out. But that's wha- that's what made me love the United States Constitution when it, in matters of freedom of speech-

   29. JRJoe Rogan16:36

       Yeah.

   30. KMKiller Mike16:36

       ... because I got a chance to see it fought for and exercised right there before me as I was learning about it.
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   So when you do…

   1. KMKiller Mike30:00

      KP, LA Reid, DJ Toomp, and gave him platform to create the genre now known as trap music. Me, I came up more out of the battle rap scene and out of the, you know, go show your wares, kind of like a comic. You get up in front of everybody, do your shit, see what works, go home, readjust, come back next week.

   2. JRJoe Rogan30:15

      So when you do like a battle rap thing, will you sign up? How, how did, how would that work?

   3. KMKiller Mike30:18

      Nah, those days, they just threw you in a pit. I mean, it was like, it was like-

   4. JRJoe Rogan30:20

      Oh, so you just met a guy for the first time.

   5. KMKiller Mike30:22

      ... Fight Club. Yeah, you ... Yeah, you show up. Um, I got my name ... My name, my nickname's Skunk, right? My nickname was Skunk, or my family called me Michael. Um, my friends were the Unruly Scholars. And those guys were like just East Coast rap. One was from Connecticut and one was from South Carolina, but his family's from New York. They could rap their ass off. They were like Rakim and Big Daddy Kane in the same group. They defeated a lot of guys, made better records. And then one day, there were these things called green lights where people would play their music and then they'd be battling each other. My homies didn't come, and man, you could just ... Everybody who you thought was the homies' homies was just shitting on them. I'm like, "What the fuck? Like, these are my homies." And my man Gerard, GG McGee, who I'd just seen like a couple of weeks ago, he was the person that kind of pulled me out of knocking around in the trap trying to be a petty drug dealer into a studio. And he was the first person to say, "Yo, this kid could really rap. Like, you know, fuck that shit. I know he steals cars and ... (laughs) You know what I mean? And he rides around doing hood rat shit with his ratchet friends, but he can really rap. Let's get him in." So he was the guy that started bringing me in. So it offended me they were talking about my friend like that. So I just started fucking ... Off with their heads, battle rapping them. And a man named Double D called me Killer that night. He said, "This kid's a killer. Mike's a killer." And that's how I got the name Killer Mike.

   6. JRJoe Rogan31:37

      Ah, what a great story.

   7. KMKiller Mike31:39

      (laughs)

   8. JRJoe Rogan31:40

      So the battle rap scene, you would just get tossed into a pit. And how much time would you get?

   9. KMKiller Mike31:45

      This is in the '90s. This isn't like formal battle rap now. Like battle rap has evolved like boxing now.

   10. JRJoe Rogan31:50

       Mm-hmm.

   11. KMKiller Mike31:50

       Like what I'm talking about is essentially cockfighting.

   12. JRJoe Rogan31:53

       So but like when you would battle rap, there would be no, no time limit, no-

   13. KMKiller Mike31:56

       No time. You just went.

   14. JRJoe Rogan31:57

       You just went.

   15. KMKiller Mike31:58

       And, and you just went until you won the crowd, or the other guy shut the fuck up and walked away with his head down.

   16. JRJoe Rogan32:02

       Wow. What was a long battle rap?

   17. KMKiller Mike32:04

       Man, like that night, those guys were still ... I literally took out four and five and six. And those guys were still trying to come at me before D, who was fucking built like you when, when, when we were children, you know what I mean? It was like it was obviously D knocking the fuck out, just told everybody to shut the fuck up. This kid won.

   18. JRJoe Rogan32:21

       (laughs)

   19. KMKiller Mike32:21

       So then it was decided, all right? D's spoken. (laughs) You know what I'm saying?

   20. JRJoe Rogan32:24

       (laughs)

   21. KMKiller Mike32:24

       DJ Double D gave me my, gave me my rap name.

   22. JRJoe Rogan32:27

       It gets heated, man. I've watched a bunch of them online where dudes get in each other's faces, and it's just-

   23. KMKiller Mike32:32

       Man, my, um ...

   24. JRJoe Rogan32:32

       Whoo.

   25. KMKiller Mike32:33

       My, um, my D- my DJ, DJ Trackstar keeps me up with the battle scene, and I couldn't do it. Like as an older man, I'm just saying to myself, like, "Yo, I would just ... I would've fought somebody, man."

   26. JRJoe Rogan32:44

       (laughs)

   27. KMKiller Mike32:44

       "Like straight the fuck up. Like it ..." Like they, they ... Man, it's ... The disrespect is amazing. But-

   28. JRJoe Rogan32:48

       It's amazing.

   29. KMKiller Mike32:49

       It's a martial art-

   30. JRJoe Rogan32:50

       Yeah.
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00

   (laughs) …

   1. KMKiller Mike45:00

      everything. So, you know, the church pops up with candy for kids, Bibles for you. And by the way, we're going to be gone a while, but we're going to leave this guy here on the wall so you know what the ideal, what God's son looked like. So if God's son looks like a Doobie Brother-

   2. JRJoe Rogan45:13

      (laughs)

   3. KMKiller Mike45:13

      ... then so does God.

   4. JRJoe Rogan45:15

      (laughs)

   5. KMKiller Mike45:16

      God looks like Jim Morrison. You know?

   6. JRJoe Rogan45:18

      Jim Morrison with a full beard.

   7. KMKiller Mike45:20

      Yeah, straight as fuck, you know.

   8. JRJoe Rogan45:21

      Wow. Wow. Yeah, it's...

   9. KMKiller Mike45:24

      When really, Jesus was probably a tan guy with dark hair and curly ey- curly hair, you know, and brown eyes that was saying shit that the government and the church didn't like, so they knocked him the fuck off, you know.

   10. JRJoe Rogan45:35

       Why do you think that each race looks for someone of another race to be their advisor?

   11. KMKiller Mike45:40

       Because p-... I don't think people trust the divinity in themselves.

   12. JRJoe Rogan45:44

       Mm.

   13. KMKiller Mike45:44

       You know? I think, I think that once you understand that as human beings, we really only look different because of subtle differences in atmosphere and change and, you know, who you mix with when. But I think that all those books that our moms paid Oprah to, to sell us of self-help and inward-looking, Reverend Ike had told my grandmother's generation that in the '70s. You know what I mean? And I think that we're scared to turn off the lights and at some point see something divine within ourselves, because once you do that, that requires you act differently.

   14. JRJoe Rogan46:14

       Mm.

   15. KMKiller Mike46:14

       And I think that people need to be told what to do. Not that they actually need it, but they want to be instructed, you know, versus knowing or going on a gut feeling or experimenting and getting something wrong. You know, my grandfather was one of the most kind, moral men I've ever met. He was always gentle with children. He only put a belt to my butt twice in my life, an- and- and shit, I think he cried harder than that. Same man at 14 years old shot a man at church for kicking his bike down. You know? He grew up in between '14 and '54 when I was born. And he had experiences that he had learned to regret, and he had dealt with that. And he had become something that by the time I was a child and he was raising me, my grandfather was divine in my eyes almost. You know what I mean?

   16. JRJoe Rogan47:00

       Mm-hmm.

   17. KMKiller Mike47:01

       Not because he was perfect, because he was genuinely good and moral. But as a 14-year-old boy who had grown up fatherless, who dropped out of school in the third grade, and who had, who understood that I must protect my brothers and sisters, he refused to be bullied by anyone, even an adult, to the point of putting a bullet in him. You know what I mean? So I think that a lot of times we're afraid to see that divinity in ourselves also because then you have to acknowledge the darkness and you have to deal with that. And it's easier to get instructed by someone else, and it's easier to see the evil as outside too. It's easier to see that is something, oh, I can't control, it just happens, versus I'm, I'm, I'm compliant and I'm complicit in it, you know?

   18. JRJoe Rogan47:37

       That's a... It's also a consequence of-You know, o- one of the things that bothers me the most when people talk about people that commit crimes or think about people that commit crimes, so much of w- who a person is is a consequence of things that had nothing to do with them.

   19. KMKiller Mike47:51

       Absolutely.

   20. JRJoe Rogan47:52

       They could have been born in a terrible neighborhood to horrible parents and been abused sexually and physically and, and by the time you get to them-

   21. KMKiller Mike48:00

       They're broken.

   22. JRJoe Rogan48:01

       ... th- their life is already a mess.

   23. KMKiller Mike48:02

       Ev-

   24. JRJoe Rogan48:02

       It's a shambles.

   25. KMKiller Mike48:03

       Broken.

   26. JRJoe Rogan48:03

       And for you to try to, to think that they are gonna look at life and just figure it out with no assistance whatsoever-

   27. KMKiller Mike48:10

       Yeah. Doesn't work.

   28. JRJoe Rogan48:10

       ... is cr- it's crazy.

   29. KMKiller Mike48:11

       Doesn't work like that. I co-

   30. JRJoe Rogan48:12

       It's one of the weirder things about our culture-
5. 1:00:00 – 1:02:34

   (coughs) …

   1. KMKiller Mike1:00:00

      being homeless, right?

   2. JRJoe Rogan1:00:02

      (coughs)

   3. KMKiller Mike1:00:02

      We know that most men that are homeless, um, have some types of mental illness or schizophrenia. So, that means that we've broken down and we're not taking care of the mentally ill in a way that we should be or could be.

   4. JRJoe Rogan1:00:12

      Mm.

   5. KMKiller Mike1:00:13

      So, if you start to fix that, you start to fix that kind of homelessness. We know that women and children, we know why they're on the street. And we know that if they're subsidized into these type of affordable housing, apartments in the city, the kids have the opportunity to go to better schools, to become better parts of society in terms of having the networks and resources. We know the mothers are closer to work, can be home. But we don't do that.

   6. JRJoe Rogan1:00:33

      Mm.

   7. KMKiller Mike1:00:33

      We, we build cities. Like right now, we're developing Atlanta, and we've been promised a certain amount of, um, of work space in the city for working class people, for poor people. Some of the developers aren't doing what they say they'd do. And because you do that, you start to increase the, the, the things that are blights on us. You know, we just have to be really committed to it and do it. That's it. And once we do it, it's done. You know? But if we, if we keep acting like it's not happening and complaining about poverty and crime and war, and not doing anything, w- it's just... The cycle never stops. And that's the under- the insanity I really don't understand.

   8. JRJoe Rogan1:01:08

      Yeah. Well, everybody feels like it's somebody else's job.

   9. KMKiller Mike1:01:11

      (laughs) Doesn't work like that.

   10. JRJoe Rogan1:01:12

       Everybody feels like... Yeah.

   11. KMKiller Mike1:01:12

       So-

   12. JRJoe Rogan1:01:12

       And everybody feels like, well, you just got to get out of that neighborhood.

   13. KMKiller Mike1:01:15

       Nah, that doesn't work.

   14. JRJoe Rogan1:01:15

       You know? So, you hear-

   15. KMKiller Mike1:01:16

       No. None of this works.

   16. JRJoe Rogan1:01:17

       That's what I always thought.

   17. KMKiller Mike1:01:18

       Roxanne Shanté talked about reentrification. She said, you know, she, she doesn't want to hear people com- keep complaining about gentrification when the kids that are leaving these neighborhoods, whether they sing, dance, rap or not, or just go get good jobs and go be decent human beings, you should be reentering your neighborhoods. You should be buying houses or pieces of land there. One of the most impressive things... One of my favorite players was John Stockton. And I don't know if it's true or not, but I read a story that he actually bought a house right on the street he grew up in. So, in the off season, he'd go back essentially home with his kids. So, they'd had some type of normalization to their life. You- we should be doing that, you know. Um, TI and I have bought properties together in the same neighborhoods we grew up in. We're developing things like restaurants and stuff. I'd like to see more athletes and rappers become the merchant and business class in that way. And I'd like to see people who grew up in neighborhoods move back to those neighborhoods they grew up in, like, like the typical iconic American dream, you know? You can build a, you know, another 8,000 square foot in the back of your A-frame house if you want to. But you shouldn't be going to 54- 60 minutes outside the city and then complaining about the blight of the city because you took yourself away. You took the talent and the resources away.

Episode duration: 3:05:20