Killer Mike and No ID Talk Collaborative Chemistry for ‘Michael’: ‘This Is Just Heart Art’

variety.com:

Steven J. Horowitz Senior Music Writer A few weeks ago, Killer Mike stood poised at the mic on stage at “The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon.” He was joined by acclaimed jazz pianist Robert Glasper and R&B singer Eryn Allen Kane for a stripped-down rendition of “Motherless,” a deeply visceral meditation on the grief he faced from losing his mother and grandmother. “Is this a blessing or a curse, or just some other shit?” he choked through tears streaming down his face. “No matter what, I’m numb as fuck ’cause I’m still motherless.” It’s this type of bare vulnerability that supercharges “Michael,” the Atlanta rapper’s first solo outing in 11 years.

Throughout his decades-long career, Mike has evolved from scene-stealing turns on OutKast projects into a bona fide hip-hop foreman, threading his music with a nimble balance of personal and political perspective. “Michael,” which was released in June, plays like an exposed nerve, going deeper than Mike has gone on prior records and serving as a testimonial of sorts, with Mike plumbing tales of growing up in Collier Heights with dexterity and clairvoyance. “I’m from an all-Black enclave in Atlanta so I write it from the African-American experience,” Mike tells Variety. “But it’s very much an American experience.

This is as American as Langston Hughes or Norman Rockwell or a Zora Neale Hurston novel. It is very much rooted in the working class.

And in the deep South, gospel and blues play a big part.” The album is framed around the sounds of Southern gospel, replete with church organs and choirs. (In the video for “Yes!” Mike actualizes it, standing at the pulpit delivering a sermon.) To capture that aesthetic, he turned to No ID, the legendary producer who got his start working.