F Scott Fitzgerald’s maxim – that there are no second acts in American lives – has not held true for some time, if ever it did. Still, the curveball third act of Michael Santiago Render’s hip-hop career has been no less surprising, nor exciting, to behold.
Killer Mike is now 49 – an old, activist head in a young, Auto-Tuned person’s game. Earlier this year he won three rap Grammy awards – a clean sweep – for his most recent album, Michael (2023), a hard-hitting yet vulnerable romp around hot topics in southern Black masculinity. Or, as a line from Humble Me, the lead track from this follow-up record puts it: “Swept up like a janitor.”
