Watch Killer Mike Defend Beyonce’s ‘Formation’ on ‘Real Time’
Run the Jewels‘ Killer Mike, a frequent guest of Real Time With Bill Maher, appeared on the show Friday to explain to viewers Beyoncé‘s “Formation” video and subsequent Super Bowl 50 halftime show performance. Conservatives have attacked Beyoncé following the Super Bowl, with Rush Limbaugh calling “Formation” “representative of the cultural decay and social rot that is befalling our country.” However, Killer Mike quelled any criticism about “Formation.”
“White people: It’s not always about you,” the rapper said of “Formation.” “When you hear her talk about the record, she says like first, ‘I’m not in the Illuminati.’ She’s talking to other black people saying, ‘Look stupid, because I’m not at Ferguson when you want me to be doesn’t mean I sold you out.’ And then the rest of the first verse is her telling other black people, ‘I like being black, this is the type of black I am. I like the fact my daughter’s black, I like my old Michael Jackson nose, I like my child with an afro. I like me.’ White people, that conversation wasn’t even for you.”
Maher joked, “What’s she saying is ‘Ladies, time to get in formation,’ which means, ‘Kill whites,’ I think we’re all clear.”
“The Black Panthers were called the Black Panthers but they weren’t just pro-black people. There was even an Asian Black Panther,” Killer Mike continued about Beyoncé’s on-field gestures at the Super Bowl. “The Black Panthers were a socialist group for any downtrodden people, and at that time, they happened to be black, but they said for all people.”
Comedian Margaret Cho added of Beyoncé’s performance, “Black pride doesn’t have to take anything away from white culture. It doesn’t have to take anything away; it can exist on its own. I think this is what Black America needed. It’s what all of us needed. It’s really important.”
Also on Real Time, Killer Mike and the panel discussed whether George W. Bush is a “war criminal” for his role in initiating the war on Iraq: