Killer Mike, the Atlanta-born rapper, activist, and businessman, will be playing at The Fillmore on July 29th.

At the age of 48, Killer Mike (real name Michael Santiago Render) is a rap veteran and legend. Debuting as an artist on Outkast’s 2000 album Stankonia, Mike started popping up on other artists’ projects, including Jay-Z’s The Blueprint 2.

Putting out his own debut album, Monster, in 2003, Killer Mike began to build up a serious fan base. After putting out two more albums, he signed with T.I.’s Grand Hustle label (an imprint of Atlantic) in 2008. In 2011, Mike met EI-P, a rapper and producer. He and EI-P began to make music together, and went on to tour with each other; they called their duo Run the Jewels. RTJ released four albums together from 2013 until 2020.

Now back with a solo record which he put his heart and soul into (not to mention $500,000 out of his own pocket before signing a record deal that reimbursed those studio and producer fees), Killer Mike is honest about his ups and downs, about the good and bad, and about his belief in a strong and caring community. (The album, MICHAEL, is executive produced by No ID [real name Ernest Dion Wilson] and features production from EI-P). Killer Mike describes the record as “a testimonial in church.” He says, “I had to figure it out. This is a prodigal son, coming-of-age story that’s telling young people it’s been done before.”

No ID’s focus on helping artists to deliver sincere and deep albums can be heard on MICHAEL (he was also the primary producer on Jay-Z’s 4:44). No ID said, “You know, there’s a difference between making music to make money and having a passion and emotion and a thought process and speaking your truth”. On Michael, that’s exactly what Killer Mike has done, sharing his truth and his emotions with us. As he said in an interview with Ebro on Apple Music, “I lost sight of who I was… making this album, it brought me back, it brought me home.”

The show at The Fillmore will be the fourth concert of Killer Mike’s nine-show summer tour, and will be a resonating evening of lyrical virtuosity and story-telling over some sick beats.

You can get tickets here.

Location: The Fillmore

Address: 1805 Geary Blvd, San Francisco, CA 94115

Date: July 29th, 2023

Doors Open: 8:00 pm