Atlanta rapper Killer Mike won three Grammys Sunday for best rap album, best rap performance and best rap song — winning all the awards he was nominated for.
The album award was for “Michael,” Killer Mike’s first solo album in over a decade.
His Grammys for best rap performance and best rap song were both for “Scientists & Engineers,” a song from the new album that included R&B singer Eryn Allen Kane and fellow Atlanta rappers Future and André 3000.
The honors were awarded outside of primetime, during a pre-show held at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.
His life as a rapper originated in Atlanta’s underground hip-hop scene. Born Michael Render, he described the 2023 album in an interview with The Monica Pearson Show on AJC as an effort to introduce audiences to the real Killer Mike.
“It’s my story about a 9-year-old boy growing up empowered in a prominently Black city in the South,” said Mike. “Atlanta is to Black people what Mecca is to Muslims. I want people to come here and plant roots here.” Watch a clip from the Monica Pearson interview below:
Read and listen to more about Killer Mike from the AJC
Read the AJC’s review of “Michael,” written by DeAsia Paige. She wrote the album is “potent at unveiling the intimate storytelling and stirring vulnerability of the man behind the activism and [part of the rap duo] Run the Jewels.”
- Stream his recent interview with journalist Monica Pearson in an episode of The Monica Pearson Show on AJC
- The AJC’s Gavin Godfrey talked to Killer Mike in November about the three Grammy nominations
- Killer Mike was also interviewed as part of the AJC’s coverage of the Hip-Hop 50th anniversary, including the AJC Film “The South Got Something to Say.”
- He was included in an AJC compilation of 50 Songs That Define Atlanta Hip-Hop for his 2003 collaboration on Bone Crusher’s song “Never Scared.”
- “Michael” was included in the AJC list of favorite albums and movies from 2023
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
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