During this year’s Revolt Summit, things got heated between rapper and activist T.I., and conservative commentator Candace Owens, before rapper and activist Killer Mike shut the entire conversation down.
The tension took place during the summit’s “Trap the Vote: Hip Hop & Politics” panel, which focused on the importance of being informed ahead of the 2020 election.
Moderated by journalist Jeff Johnson, the panel also included activist and co-founder of the Women’s March Tamika Mallory, activist and former spokesperson for the Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign Katrina Pierson and Steven Pargett of Dream Defenders.
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Emotions began to run high after T.I. asked Owens and Pierson how they could support a president who has never condemned white supremacy.
“When you say ‘Make America Great Again,” which period are we talking about, the period when women couldn’t vote, the period when we were hanging from trees, the crack era, which period in America are you trying to make America like again,” T.I. asked.
Owens attempted to answer the question, but after she failed to offer a straight, direct response, the conflict snowballed into several panelists interrupting each other and fighting to get their points across.
After sitting quietly taking it all in, Killer Mike responded with what some believer are arguably the strongest statements of the discussion – and ones that Black America collectively need to hear right now.
In summary, Killer Mike said Black people need to stop arguing over who’s the best master and build their own economy and communities.
“As Black people, how are we going to get in a room together, stop fighting over who’s master, decide what our agenda is and how to leverage it,” Killer Mike asked.
Later in during the discussion, Owens said if T.I. had given her a chance to finish her response, she would’ve echoed Killer Mike.
A video recording of the entire panel discussion and a full transcript of Killer Mike’s comments are below.
Transcript of Killer Mike’s Comments:
“Niggas, niggas, niggas, nigga, nigga nigga, nigga. Stop it. Stop. Everybody hush, hush and listen. … Cuz I’m about to give you the secret to what the f**k y’all are witnessing. What you niggas – N-E-G-U-S, of the royal kind, not N-I-double-G-A-S – What y’all are seeing right now are free people arguing over who got the best master. … Oh yeah … So we gon’ go back to silent. Let’s register this sh*t back down. We gon’ lock this back down … So I’ll tell you when America was great, seven years after the ending of the Civil War … Seven years after the ending of the Civil War, Blacks within seven to 15 years accumulated over 15 million acres of land … Black people were the only skilled labor in there, so if it was welding to be done, iron-bending, cotton-picking, it was Black people so instantly your value became more.
And Candace has a point. The point that she made about illegal immigration affecting you is that it is going to affect you at some point. Why? If the Kegel Chicken Factory is hiring illegal immigrants at a undercut on the rate, it affects the Black people who live there who should be demanding $20 bucks an hour because they’re being undercut so when they get wiped out they have to hire Blacks, pay them and unionize. … But you have to remember that people who look like you immigrate too so before you widely say fuck them all, remember America is always going to have a slave class and if illegal immigrants or legal immigrants will not be the lowest paid workers, those in prison will be and that always ends up looking like one of their sons so it circles back around. So that’s why people who are Black who are from two different plantations got to get the fuck away from master long enough to say how are we going to burn down both their f***king houses?
This is my thought. I don’t care if you destroy the Republican or Democratic party because at one time Blacks were Republicans and you dominated those seven years after the Civil War. You were Republicans, you had more Blacks in the House and Senate than you do now and you dominated your own economic communities. You did that as Republicans. As Democrats, you did the same in cities like Atlanta; you failed in other cities, but the most important thing is self-organizing. By the time we get to a candidate, we should have a list that says, “White man, white woman, these are our demands. You can meet them and get our vote or not and we’re gon’ stay home and crochet and make collard greens, but what you cannot do is continue to argue over who is the best master. I don’t give a f**k if it’s Trump, Obama, yo mama, my mama, what the f**k do you have for me? And my community?
Now … if you stop playing and say, “Oh I’m gon’ say the snazziest sh*t to each other on stage. I’m gon’ show that mother**ker, this is gon’ be quotable; and we close up the doors and we simply say, how do we take the good of what you have, the good of what you have, (and) the good of what you have, how do we shape it into a 10-point agenda to present to every local, state, and national politician. If you cannot meet points on our agenda, we simply can’t support you. I like you, I love your casinos Mr. Trump. I like you Bernie, I like maple syrup that comes from Vermont, but what do you have for us now?
Now when talking about have Black people done better? We keep doing better and we keep getting knocked down. … So I’m gon’ tell people, this is your homework: F**k trying to convince you. I want you to go home tonight; I want you to listen to Thomas Sowell. I want you to listen to Walter E. Williams. I want you to listen to Antonio Moore. I want you to listen to Yvette Carnell. I want you to listen to the economic strategy of Elijah Mohammed and Marcus Garvey. I want you to listen to the political strategy of Stockley Carmichael, I need you to get on your study and prove yourself worthy sh*t because I’m tired of arguing who got the best master. You are already free now nigga act like it. Do your research, do your research and decide what’s best for you; because what’s best for us in Atlanta was a Black man who said “OK, I’m in the mayor now. You want to do business with Atlanta, meaning you wanna have an opportunity zone? 29% of all government contracts had to be attached to Black people. When he found out that there were no Black architectural firms, he said Black people build driveways. We can build airport runways. So he gave the white architectural firm the rights to build the airport. The f**king Herman Russell company laid the (runway). …
As Black people, how are we going to get in a room together, stop fighting over who’s master, decide what our agenda is and how to leverage it. I don’t care who agrees with Kaep or Jay-Z. I care that Black people as a whole showed up to work that day. What if nobody would have showed up to work? What if everybody said, “You know what, f**k it my nigga.” What is everybody on the same day had done that? What if every policeman, every beer salesman, every car parker, every NFL analyst would’ve not showed up? Until we’re ready to do that, we’re not serious about being free. You just here to see a show and argue over who got the best master.
Until we decide what is the real breaking point – if Blacks are 15 percent of this nation, we should be 15 percent of Wall Street. We should be 15 percent of music execs 15% of Hollywood execs. 15% of governors, 15 percent of mayors and until you hit that 15 percent, you’re failing, failing, failing, f**king failing, no matter who your master is! So pick a better master, I say kill your masters and get your own sh*t!
