Killer Mike has announced his forthcoming album MICHAEL, slated for release on June 16. In tandem with sharing the news, the Atlanta rapper has debuted a two-part short film paying tribute to his late mother.
The short film debuts the previously unreleased “Motherless” featuring Eryn Allen Kane. It also utilizes last months’ “Don’t Let the Devil” with features from EL-P and thankugoodsir.
In the “Don’t Let the Devil” visual, directed by Davi Peña, Mike sorts through some of his mother’s belongings in her Atlanta home, taking him down the road of memories he made growing up in the city, including some of his mother’s epic, musically-driven parties.
“El’s heard me talk about these bohemian-artsy-disco-infused parties my mom used to throw when I was kid. I’d hear everything there – that’s where I first heard Grandmaster Flash, Kurtis Blow and Whodini,” Mike shared. “So when we were trying to figure out what the video for “Don’t Let the Devil” should be, Jaime came back with this treatment written out and I cried at the end.”
“ What’s even crazier is he didn’t know what we were doing for “Motherless” either but that’s the magic I guess,” he added.
The “Motherless” video was directed by Shane Smith, a somber homage to accompany the last song Mike created for the album.
Watch the visual for Killer Mike’s “Motherless” above. MICHAEL is out for streaming everywhere on June 16.
In other music news, Frank Kozik, the iconic poster and album cover artist, has passed away at 61.
