His aspirations—whether they be in music, TV, politics—are all integrated into who he already is. There is no big plan. He sits on the board of Atlanta’s High Museum of Art and drops in on classes at Morehouse not out of ambition but because, to him, it’s the right thing to do. His guiding passions in life are smoking good weed, “singing and dancing for a living,” and “fucking off in the Blue Flame,” his favorite strip club. Killer Mike contains multitudes, but if you had to boil him down, you’d get a concerned citizen who just happens to be a rapper.
Mike and I end our tour of the Westside at Bankhead Seafood, the restaurant he bought in 2018 with T.I. and local business mogul Noel Khalil. It’s a large brick structure on Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway. It’s been given a fresh coat of paint and branded with a new logo, but it’s still no-frills. It could be any fish spot in any Black neighborhood in America. I find myself inspired as Mike explains that the 50-year-old business almost closed its doors for good before he and T.I. decided to keep it going. They not only bought the restaurant but purchased the recipes from its original proprietor, Helen Brown Harden. That’s how you honor those who came before you, Mike says, and maintain the integrity of the business.
I don’t know if Mike’s success story could happen anywhere but Atlanta. It seems impossible to replicate, let alone scale up, for all the little Black boys coming up on the Westside today. That won’t stop Mike from trying, though, because—for all the theory he’s read and plans he’s heard—his way, the Atlanta Way, is the only way he’s seen actually work.
A few days after we met, an Atlanta police officer killed a 27-year-old Black man named Rayshard Brooks. According to video footage, Brooks was asleep in a Wendy’s drive-through when he was approached by police responding to a complaint. A struggle ensued, and Brooks attempted to run away with an officer’s Taser. It is unclear why the situation escalated so quickly after 41 minutes of peaceful interaction. What is indisputable, however, is that Brooks ended up dead, with two bullets in his back.
The officer who fired the shots was relieved of duty immediately, and he was later charged with felony murder and aggravated assault. The officer’s lawyers have stated that his actions were justified. Atlanta police chief Erika Shields resigned from her post within hours of the incident. The rapid response didn’t stop protesters from shutting down a nearby interstate, and the Wendy’s where Brooks was killed was burned to the ground.
I call Mike a few days after. I want to know what he thinks, what he makes of this happening in a city he went out on a limb to defend. I also want to know if, in light of the shooting, he would take back his warning to not “burn your own house down for anger with an enemy.” I want to know if he’s changed his mind.
When he picks up the phone, he’s cagey at first, uncharacteristically formal and short. After some loaded “How are you’s” and throat clearing, I finally find the words to ask Mike how he feels about all that’s happened.
“I don’t…I don’t know how I feel,” he responds, at a loss for words. “I don’t.” He’s afraid for his city, afraid that “national political agendas” and “evil policemen” are infecting the decisions being made and, ultimately, the course that’s being set for Atlanta. “I’m afraid that 50 years of Black mayorship may burn to the ground because of things that are out of my direct control,” Mike adds. “I’m afraid all that legacy may be lost because of political maneuvering and the inability for us to reform policing in a progressive way fast enough. That’s what I’m afraid of.”
Regardless, Mike is steadfast in his belief in the Atlanta Way. When I ask what can be done, he goes back to the basics: He talks about the need to hire police officers from within the communities they serve. He talks about swiftly holding cops accountable for their misconduct. He talks about casting votes for progressive leadership to achieve justice and long-term social change, and he says that he’ll use whatever influence he possesses to make that vision happen, to set an example for his city and the rest of the nation.
And what if that doesn’t work? I ask.
“If it doesn’t work,” says Killer Mike matter-of-factly, “then we’re doomed.”
Donovan X. Ramsey is an Atlanta-based journalist. His first book, ‘When Crack Was King: A People’s History of the Crack Epidemic,’ will be published by One World, an imprint of Random House, next fall.
A version of this story originally appears in the August 2020 issue with the title “The Atlanta Way”.
PRODUCTION CREDITS:
Photograph by Christian Cody
Barber: Megan Mincey
Grooming by Jasmine Harris
Styled by Marty Mc’Fresh