Killer Mike and George Clinton Talk Politicians, Pimps and Preachers at the Barbershop
If you can randomly pick two artists who's used their music to initiate social change, George Clinton and Killer Mike may come to mind.
Upon first glance, it may look like their differences outweigh their similarities but if you look again, you'll see that both artists are cut from the same cloth, in terms of music and business acumen.
Coincidentally, both Mike and Clinton have owned barbershops at one time or another, and they recently had an interesting conversation about why they wanted to get in the haircut game in the first place.
"I was going to open this shop when I first got a record deal," said Mike during the talk, which was set up by NPR. "Cause my job before this was selling drugs. So I was like, 'I don't want to keep that job' ... I saw this shop on sale on the Internet, I bought it site unseen, came in the room and just told my wife I bought a barber shop and she ain't talk to me for two weeks."
Then Clinton said that people would use his shop to get together and discuss ideas.
"Some people used to just come to the barber shop where we was at just to hang," he stated. "Politicians, pimps and preachers, they were all the same. They'll get in this shop and talk sh-- all day and just hang and that's what we were."
Afterwards, Mike said that he didn't trust the music business to fully pay his bills, which was another reason he opened the shop. Later on, however, he realized that running his own business also kept him connected to the community, so it was a complete win-win for him.
You can watch the two musical talents chop it up here.
Rappers Who Fell Off the Face of the Earth