Killer Mike, one half of bombastic rap duo Run the Jewels, has made a six-episode Netflix documentary series you should stream directly into your eyeballs at your nearest convenience. Trigger Warning sees the musician embark on a journey through modern America, trying out various social experiments. He tries to live solely within the black community, only using products created by black business owners (almost impossible, it turns out) and attempts to turn street fraternity the Crips – often referred to as a gang – into cola-selling business people.
It’s a vital show for 2019, so we called him to hear about the motives for making it, why he’s anti-gun control and why, in Mike’s opinion, Kanye was right to meet with Trump.
You’ve trying to get this series made in one form or another for years now…
Killer Mike: “We’ve been trying to figure out how to make this type of show. We needed a place on TV for truth and information and comedy and sarcasm and wit, all in the same place. Where they don’t have to be in separate categories. Some very intelligent people like some hoodratty, ratchet stuff, so it gave us an opportunity to mash all that stuff together through social experiments. Why not upset the status quo by giving an anarchist the chance to say, “Hey, what’s wrong?’”
Did the world just have to get fucked up enough for a show like this to capture the zeitgeist?
“Ha! That’s a great question. I personally think the world has always been fucked up. It’s just about whether you pay collective attention. The world has to get really fucked up when people go, ‘Hey! That guy should be chief!’ [Laughs] I guess the zeitgeist is more about the people who are being undermined. As long as people are paying attention, I would like to be doing it.”
