UPDATE, with video: Grammy-winning Atlanta rapper Killer Mike appeared on The View today, and reflected on his recent arrest – in handcuffs – at the Grammys earlier this month, saying, “All of my heroes have been in handcuffs – Malcolm, Martin, Mandela, Medgar. I walked out with the same dignity and respect that I walked in with, and I would implore people to just take that from it.”
The rapper was asked about the incident by View co-host Sunny Hostin, who acknowledged that the ongoing legal case restricted the extent to which Killer Mike, real name Mike Render, could discuss.
As he has previously said, Killer Mike described the evening by noting, “Backstage was overcrowded, the winners were exuberant and I think security got a little overzealous.”
Watch the interview below.
The activist-entrepreneur-rapper was taken into custody following his triple-Grammy win February 4 by the LAPD following an alleged altercation with a security guard earlier. He was detained for several hours and booked on a misdemeanor charge. He is scheduled to appear in court in Los Angeles February 29.
On The View today, Killer Mike said that after being detained and released, he was greeted by his wife, Shana. “I walked out to my wife in the rain,” he said. “I twas like a romance movie. It was dope.”
Several hours later, the rapper was notified by his former girlfriend that a kidney had been found for their 21-year-old son, who has been awaiting a transplant for three years.
Later during his View visit, when pressed on his reluctance to endorse Joe Biden for president, the rapper said he was focused on “hyper-local” politics in Atlanta. “In terms of nationally, I’m just kinda doing what my grandfather said, ‘Stay out of white folks business and watch what happens…For right now, I just don’t want to be involved in the soap opera.”
