Killer Mike spoke at a press conference held by Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms last night in response to the widespread protests in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police. In an emotional speech, the rapper and activist advocated for peace, urging people to organize and vote for more progressive leaders instead of taking part in violent protests.

“I am duty-bound to be here to simply say: That it is your duty not to burn your own house down for anger with an enemy,” Mike said. “It is your duty to fortify your own house, so that you may be a house of refuge in times of organization. And now is the time to plot, plan, strategize, organize, and mobilize.”

“I’m mad as hell,” Mike added. “I woke up wanting to see the world burn yesterday, because I’m tired of seeing black men die. He casually put his knee on a human being’s neck for nine minutes as he died like a zebra in the clutch of a lion’s jaw. We watch it like murder porn over and over again.”

“So that’s why children are burning it to the ground. They don’t know what else to do,” he continued. “And it is the responsibility of us to make this better right now. We don’t want to see one officer charged, we want to see four officers prosecuted and sentenced. We don’t want to see Targets burning, we want to see the system that sets up for systemic racism burnt to the ground.”

“Two of the most effective ways, is first, taking your butt to the computer and making sure you fill out your census to make sure people know where you are and who you are,” Mike said. “The next thing is to exercise your political bully power and go into to political elections, and beating up the politicians that you don’t like. You got a prosecutor that sent your papa to jail and you know it was bullshit? Put a new prosecutor in there. Now is your election to do it. You want a different senator that’s more aggressive, that pulls marijuana through? Now is the time to do that. But it is not time to burn down your own home.”

“We have to be better than this moment. We have to be better than burning down our own homes, because if we lose Atlanta, what else we got?” he concluded. “I want you to go home, I want you to talk to 10 of your friends, I want you guys to come up with real solutions … We don’t need a dumbass president repeating what segregationists said.”

Watch his speech below.