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Learn the Jewels
In this day and age the more personable an artist is, the more likely they will be successful.
There are some people who allow their conditions to shape their response, and there are others who can take a condition and make it their own. Killer Mike is an example of the latter. Twenty years ago, he burst on the scene with an iconic verse on OutKast’s song Snappin and Trapping off Stankonia. From there, Mike won a Grammy with OutKast on the song The Whole World, but struggled to get that same level of success afterward musically. His musical catalogue is critically acclaimed, but commercially unsuccessful. Now almost seven years after his release of Run the Jewels, Mike is a prolific business owner, possible political candidate, and his musical career is more successful than ever.. How though?
Five years ago Killer Mike wasn’t a name you’d hear on television often or even out of the names of casual rap fans, so much so that a nod from Kendrick Lamar on his iconic To Pimp a Butterfly album seemed well overdue. Now you can hardly go anywhere without seeing viral clips from his conversations with Bernie Sanders, the 2020 Atlanta race riots, clips from his controversial Netflix show Trigger Warning, or concerts packed with RTJ fans. In five years Mike went from a niche taste to a national treasure with a mix of eloquence…
