KILLER MIKE

My biggest failure was trying to start and run a music label. The music industry was dying, and I wasn't ready to help other people the way that they needed to be helped. I was trying to, and I was stifling myself with it.

You can't argue that hip-hop rots away the moral character of kids or rots their brain and still see middle-class white kids going to college who are listening to hip-hop. Going on to become healthy adults listening to hip-hop.

I'm happy to be for people what Scarface, Ice Cube, and Rakim have been for me.

I've been a music fan all my life, and you know the difference when the musicians care.

Those 'Pledge' records did good for me, and they're the foundation that this Killer Mike is built on, but I was judging myself on physical sales and didn't understand that music sales were declining overall.

This is a beautiful life we lead in spite of whatever things come against us or whatever team loses or wins.

The fact that I'm in a group that inspires others artists is just heaven to me.

My mom had did a wonderful job of giving me two great dads: I had a biological and non-biological dad.

I'm not going to stop being who I am.

My rights are precious, and I value those provided to me through the United States Constitution so much.

If you don't like the NRA, get a million black people to join. Go to the convention. Realize that this ain't white people in hoods, just regular working class people like you that are probably going to be friendly and engage you. And then add your thoughts to the agenda.

A lot of time, when you're poor and you ain't got but 15, 20 bucks in your pocket - if you can't change your shoes, you can change your look with a haircut.

I tell people I live in Atlanta. Georgia's outside of Atlanta, absolutely. But my family's from the very rural south. My family's from Tuskegee, Alabama. And they're from Eatonton, Georgia. Places like Greenwood, Georgia, my family is from... so I've seen it both ways.

I don't want to be married to any ideology, because life is a lot more fluid than that, and I think that we're trained and conditioned in this country to think in teams.

My ears are shot. I'm a musician.

Being a cop must be hard. My dad was one and never wanted any of his children to follow in his footsteps.

A lot of times, elections are lost, and the hope of the public is lost because they don't turn out.

I like the New York style of funk, the California style of funk, but the South I never felt like - and Atlanta particularly - got the credit for taking their lessons and progressing on it.

I'm a Banksy fan. I'm also a fan of Chris Hobe, Mister Totem, Drew Wootten, Mad Clout, Hense and Sever, in visual and street art. And Jonathan Mannion and Shane Nash in photography.

People don't accredit Killer Mike and El-P with having the humanity that we do. They don't understand that the darkness and the anger that we rap about comes from a place of love, care, and concern.

I believe in smart people.

If we could figure out ways for kids to exit college without having the burden of debt, what we have really figured out is how to create a more fertile breeding ground for people who can think innovatively and progress us as a species.

I believe being honourable lasts longer than rapping good.

A lot of times, our greatest minds are locked into a 9-5 job.

I've been in the newspapers since I was about 15 - not for rapping, but for real substantive stuff I was doing in the community, organizing around gang violence in the schools. So I had already made my grandma proud before I was on TV. I've always been who I am.