Killer Mike wants to shake shit up and he’s willing to hurt a few feelings to do it. As a politically and socially inquisitive rapper of over two decades, one half of the Run the Jewels duo with songs like “Kill Your Masters,” he has been tinkering with ideas on how to develop a system to work for the working class since he was in grade school. Such ideas tend to make people uncomfortable, as a recent Breakfast Club showdown with DJ Envy over public versus private education shows. His new Netflix show, “Trigger Warning,” is a thought experiment where, according to Mike, a self-described anarchist shapes the status quo. In a series of tests, he attempts to reform religion, overhaul American education, and give black gangs a PR facelift and branding campaign. In episode one, he attempts to only patronize black businesses. By the end, he realizes it’s untenable.

Though solutions-oriented, “Trigger Warning” is a trial and error process that isn’t meant to remake the world overnight, and the experience was in part about finding out how our current capitalist system prevents change for those living under it. The show is as much about why some of these things can’t work as it is why they might be worth trying. Mike is hoping to start some hard conversations in what he describes as a safe setting. In that vein, the Atlanta rapper spoke with Pitchfork about waiting 10 years to finally make such a provocative show, existing in a polarized cable news landscape, his relationship to guns and the NRA, and how barbershops shaped the show’s tone.

I read that there have been many attempts at trying to create this show over the years. Why do you think this version of the show is the one that works? Do you think it’s about timing or have you fine-tuned the idea to the point that it’s perfect in its given form?

Killer Mike: I think this version of the show is the perfection of what we’ve been working of for 10 years. We did a version that was over-polished that felt built for TV, but then we really started to understand my personality and who I am, and some of the stuff that people have witnessed me do and endure over the last 10 years. That actually helped the show.

It’s more like watching a friend go on an adventure or walking through a social experiment. Time worked in our favor—the fact that we kept sharpening our knife to the point that it was razor sharp—and we kind of focused our light into a laser. I’m manifesting and saying I want to have a season 2 now; it should be sharper, wittier, and I wish to have a Dave Chappelle moment.

What inspired you to take this thought experiment to television? I feel like some of these ideas are things you’ve been trying to parse in your raps for years now.

My ideas have been the ideas I’ve had since I sat in 4th grade class. If you look at Leonardo Da Vinci or Picasso, they had sketches before they had the paintings. These ideas are sort of always with me, and there are always questions. In terms of Crips, I’ve often wondered growing up why do we celebrate white gangsters when we have our own community of gangsters? There should be a Bumpy Johnson steakhouse. But I can go to Godfather’s Pizza. So for me, as a people, if you don’t celebrate yourself by seeing a savior that looks like you, and then you don’t have the common sense to celebrate your criminals, you’re just a lost muthafucka. It’s my ambition to put my people back on the path, I discovered some things about myself, I discovered some things about my community. It’s a wonderful adventure.