Killer Mike is an amazing human being, and his well-articulated opinions about pretty much anything are always worth hearing. Last night, the rapper and activist appeared on The Tavis Smiley Show to discuss rap, race relations in America, Nina Simone, and more. He also directly confronted the stupid idea — most recently spewed by Geraldo Rivera on Fox News — that hip-hop is a negative influence and a source of violence within the black community:

To blame it on a culture that children created to have peace in their community is something that’s almost evil and maniacal. It’s why I have a real problem with [Bill] O’Reilly, because I don’t think he believes these things, and I think he sells this fear to White America and that fear becomes something compounded and evil and allows people to turn their head when children are murdered…You can’t argue that hip-hop rots away the moral character of kids or rots their brain and still see middle class white kids going to college who are listening to hip-hop. Going on to become healthy adults listening to hip-hop. You have to ask yourself, what are these black kids missing? What are we not giving them?

The interview was conducted in two parts. The second part is airing tonight, and can watch the first below.

(via Pitchfork)

UPDATE: Killer Make made another appearance on the show Wednesday night — he talked about the Charleston shooting, gun rights, and more. He also addresses the fact that his Run The Jewels rapping partner El-P is white: “We are all suffering under this oppression. We’ve taken the bait of racism — which is another form of classism, masked with color — to in-fight and not see the real enemy.” Watch the full segment: