"Michael Luther King to the Sellers of the Rock" --Mike Bigga (Killer Mike)

"...They abandoned working class rap with high ideals and bought into “conscious” fruit cake rap. Rap that is vocal but not offensive, rap that was smart but not blue collar, rap that was willing to protest (see Kanye’s rant on Bush) but not riot (see Rage Against the Machine at the Democratic National Convention)..." -Mike Bigga, Illuminati? Sheesh! This Ish Again!, XXL Blog

And this is why I will always love and support Mike Bigga (Killer Mike). His message goes beyond the convenience of 16 bars and into the actual community. He uses mainstream sites like XXL, not some obscure blog site that only you and your circle of "enlightened" friends know about, to inform the masses. He, in short, is what I have dubbed a "community rapper." Even if you don't agree with everything he says, or dig every song he makes, you can't deny that his heart is with the people.

I interview a lot of rappers for a living. I'm not going to go into the whole "Ignorant Rapper" rant, because the truth is, a lot of these guys that I interview simply are not ignorant. They just don't care enough to say anything relevant. In my opinion, that's a million times worse than not knowing.

So, as the music industry continues to mumble and blubber about "first week sales"-- as our rappers and artists continue to go ape shit over being Grammy-nominated, as "industry insiders" continue to rant and whine about the terrible state of urban radio and how dumb consumers are, at least we have a few people out there, like Mike, who is actually man enough to legitmately say something publicly that actually matters...and make music that actually reflects his knowledge, intelligence and more imporantly his genuine compassion for and committment to the people.

"I Gotcha"