Killer Mike addresses his arrest at the 2024 Grammy Awards on his new single and video “HUMBLE ME,” released hours after returning to the scene of the incident at Los Angeles’ Peacock Theatre for tonight’s BET Awards. The Run the Jewels rapper won Album of the Year at the ceremony for MICHAEL, his first solo effort in 11 years.
In February, after winning Best Rap Album, Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance during the Grammys pre-telecast, Killer Mike was arrested for misdemeanor battery after allegedly pushing a security guard while he attempted to enter Crypto.com Arena, which is across the street from Peacock Theatre. According to the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office, Mike completed a community service requirement.
In the black-and-white clip for “HUMBLE ME,” the artist is gradually shown to be relieved of his glasses, jewelry and suit jacket, while his hands bear the evidence of being fingerprinted by police and his wrists are placed in cuffs. “I won at the Grammys / did that for Atlanta / swept up like a janitor / got sent to the slammer / treat me like an animal or some kind of Hannibal,” he raps.
Comparing “sitting in a room full of cops” to the Biblical tale of Daniel in the lions’ den, Mike then reveals a happy twist of fate: “I went to sleep as free as could be / and the next day my son got a kidney.” Indeed, the artist’s 21-year-old son Mikael ‘Pony Boy’ Render received a long-awaited transplant the day after the Grammy arrest, and appears at the end of the “HUMBLE ME” video with his dad.
“I believe that humility and worship granted me God’s grace in the face of that test, and I believe my son receiving his kidney was a blessing from God,” Mike says.
Although further details have yet to be revealed, “HUMBLE ME” is expected to appear on the follow-up to MICHAEL, which will be released at some point this summer by Loma Vista Records. Killer Mike is on tour for the next two months backed by the Mighty Midnight Revival choir, including a July 29-31 residency at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York.