Run the Jewels rapper tells political stiffs that Vermont senator is ‘of the Beastie Boys lineage’ to challenge authority

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Have you ever wondered what kind of hip-hop artist Bernie Sanders would make if he gave up politics and went into the music business? No, didn’t think so.

Democratic debate: Clinton and Sanders duel on Wall Street and healthcare Read more

On Sunday night, however, the Guardian had the chance to ask Michael Render, aka Killer Mike, how he rates the senator for Vermont as an orator. As in, could the Bern cut it as a rapper?

“I think he’s of the Beastie Boys lineage, he definitely could have killed it with the boys from Brooklyn,” came the reply.

Killer Mike, a Grammy winner with OutKast and co-founder of Run the Jewels, who describes himself as a Pan-Africanist gangster rapper from Atlanta, was doing the rounds of the spin room after the Charleston Democratic presidential debate. He was doing so on behalf of his favored candidate, Sanders.

The hip-hop star cut a distinctive figure in a black sweatshirt, surrounded by the standard-issue blue or grey suits worn by professional political operatives.

But he had enough passion in him to match all the campaign apparatchiks in the room. America deserved a president, he said, with policies in line with those of Martin Luther King Jr.

Black working- and middle-class families in the south, in particular, needed Sanders, Killer Mike said, because he would “challenge the powerful, fight on the side of poor people and women, make sure people have healthcare and education”.

Killer Mike said he first felt the Bern when Sanders put out a tweet that he read.

“I was impressed by it,” he said, “and contacted him and asked him and some other candidates to please have a conversation with me.”

Rand Paul initially agreed to be in touch, but then pulled out. Hillary Clinton didn’t reply.

“Sanders was the only one who came forward,” he said.

Killer Mike spins for Sanders.

Killer Mike said he was dismayed by the way the south of the country had transitioned to the Republican party.

“I don’t understand that,” he said. “Poor white people are aligning themselves with a party that doesn’t care about them. That makes no sense to me.

“You should at least want basic healthcare, you should at least want your wife to have maternity leave, and to be paid a living wage when you work at McDonald’s while you study for your degree. And if you’re wanting that, then you’re voting for Bernie Sanders.”

Which gives us perhaps the most surprising and enticing take-away from tonight’s Democratic debate. Forget Kanye 2020: Killer Mike 2020 is the future.