Killer Mike reacts to Ferguson verdict before headline show

Performing with Run the Jewels in St. Louis last night, Killer Mike opened the show by offering a passionate reaction to the state’s Grand Jury’s recent decision not to charge police officer Darren Wilson with the shooting dead of unarmed teenager Michael Brown in nearby Ferguson.

Forgoing the duo’s usual entrance music, the rapper instead used the beginning of the show to divulge his disappointment and sadness at the verdict. Within the five-minute long address, he expressed fear for his two sons, 20 and 12 years old respectively, admitted to sharing a tearful embrace with his wife after hearing the news and referenced Martin Luther King by declaring that the riots that have plagued Ferguson since the ruling are simply “the language of the unheard.”

”I just gotta tell you today that, man, no matter how much we do it, no matter how much we get shit together, shit comes along and kicks you on your ass, and you don’t feel like a champion. So tonight, I got kicked on my ass when I listened to that prosecutor,” he said.

A vocal critic of the shooting since the day of Brown’s death, Killer Mike then channelled this intensity into the group’s rendition of ‘Run The Jewels’, ushering in an ensuing performance rich in catharsis.

Watch the speech below.