Killer Mike

The legendary US rapper, actor and social and political activist known as Killer Mike was born Michael Santiago Render in Adamsville, near Atlanta, in the state of Georgia on 20 April 1975 to a policeman father and florist mother. He took his first steps on the rap scene after meeting OutKast's Big Boi and producers The Beat Bullies at Atlanta's Morehouse College and kickstarted his career thanks to a fortuitous feature on OutKast's "Snappin' & Trappin'" from the seminal 2000 album Stankonia followed by the 2001 single "The Whole World," which won the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group. Released in 2003, his own debut LP Monster cracked the US Billboard 200 Top 10 and featured contributions from Big Rube, OutKast, Big Boi and Sleepy Brown, among others. Its successor, I Pledge Allegiance to the Grind, landed in 2006 followed by I Pledge Allegiance to the Grind II in 2008. Neither album made an impact on the charts but Killer Mike found some commercial success with PL3DGE, which was released on Grand Hustle in 2011 and featured appearances from Young Jeezy, Twista, Funkadelic, Gucci Mane, Big Boi and T.I. His fifth album, R.A.P. Music, arrived in 2012 and went to number 82 in the US. The success of the album led to the creation of the acclaimed super-duo Run the Jewels with the LP's producer EL-P. In 2023, following a 12-year break between albums, Killer Mike dropped his sixth album Michael, which featured collaborations with André 3000, 2 Chainz, Ty Dolla Sign, and many more. The LP went to number 58 on the US Billboard 200.