Killer Mike Backs Young Thug, YSL’s Freedom On First Solo Song In 10 Years

Killer Mike joins the growing crowd of musicians who are advocating for Young Thug, Gunna, and their YSL crew’s freedom. The Atlanta native gives the embattled artists support in his first solo song in 10 years.

On Monday, July 4, Killer Mike released his new song “Run” featuring an introductory foreword by Dave Chappelle and new a verse from Young Thug. In the powerful video for the No I.D.-produced song, Chappelle’s message for the Run The Jewels rapper plays as various imperative figures in Black history like Shirley Chisholm and others make cameos. Seconds later, we can see Killer Mike rap his verses while standing in the trenches during a war.

 

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“If you’re looking at this video, certain things are gonna stand out: Obviously, there’s a war going on for people who want justice and righteousness, and there’s a war that’s symbolized by what you would notice is old Confederate uniforms and Nazi-like uniforms,” Killer Mike told Rolling Stone about the video.

Young Thug doesn’t appear in the video, but his presence is felt midway through. As Thugger’s verse begins to play, we can see soldiers get captured by the enemy. They eventually break free from custody and run towards a man who’s waving a massive white flag that says ‘Free Thug. Protect Black Art. Free Gunna.” In another scene, we can see a soldier that has “Free YSL” on his bandage.

“I wanted this video — that was inspired by the monologue that Dave Chappelle did at the beginning — to be representative that there’s a fight, the spiritual fight, that is going on every single day with us,” Mike added.

“Run” is Killer Mike’s first solo single since he dropped his R.A.P. Music album in 2012. Since then, he’s continued to drop music with his partner-in-rhyme El-P as Run The Jewels. They’ve released four installments of their Run The Jewels album as well as their deluxe version of RTJ4, which dropped last year.

Watch Killer Mike’s “Run” video below.