Watch Killer Mike Make His Ozark Cameo, Talking Nas’ Illmatic With Ruth Langmore
One of the many, many fun things about Ozark, the gleefully trashy Netflix crime drama, is the way the character Ruth Langmore, the tough-as-nails backwoods money launderer played by Julia Garner, loves ’90s rap. This seems more like a showrunner projecting tastes on characters and less like an actual character decision, but as someone who loves ’90s rap, it’s always cool when that stuff pops up on TV. Another fun thing about Ozark is the show’s tendency to soundtrack dramatic moments with Run The Jewels needledrops. In a new clip, we get to see both tendencies come together.
Tomorrow, Netflix will release the second half of the final Ozark season. Last year, we learned that Killer Mike would appear in that final season. Today, Netflix has shared a clip where Killer Mike — a guy who once had his own Netflix show — encounters Ruth. She approaches him as a fan, and the two proceed to have a conversation about Nas’ “NY State Of Mind,” the song that happens to be playing on Ruth’s headphones in that moment.
I’ve only had a couple of conversations with Killer Mike, but I firmly believe that he would get into poetic Nas interpretations with a random fan. But he wouldn’t do it in a thoughtful, withdrawn way; he’d be excited to talk about it. Also, anyone who happened to be listening to Illmatic when they met a favorite rapper wouldn’t be embarrassed about it. But if Killer Mike and Ruth were both fired-up to discuss the intricacies of a Nas classic, that probably wouldn’t serve the show’s narrative needs.
In any case, I hope we get more Killer Mike on Ozark and that Justin Bateman tries to rope him into a money-laundering scheme. That’s what happened in the REO Speedwagon cameo a while back. It should happen here, too! Watch the scene below.
The new Ozark episodes arrive on Netflix 4/29. Fun fact: Julia Garner is married to Foster The People’s Mark Foster in real life, so she and Killer Mike have probably been backstage at a lot of the same festivals.