This past weekend, Killer Mike appeared in an interview on the National Rifle Association’s online television channel, defending the idea of black gun ownership and saying that he wouldn’t let his kids participate in the school walkouts in favor of gun control. (He said, jokingly I think, that he told them, “If you walk out that school, walk out my house.”)

Mike, a longtime advocate of black gun ownership, has since apologized for the way that the NRA timed the release of that interview, using it against this weekend’s March For Our Lives protests. In the Twitter videos where he issued that apology, Mike said that he supports the march and calls himself an “ally” of the kids who planned it, but he also affirmed his stance that it’s important for black people to own guns.

Last night, El-P, Mike’s friend and partner in Run The Jewels, issued a statement of his own on Twitter. In his statement, El-P wrote a few things in support of the March For Our Lives: “i am personally incredibly inspired and blown away by the bravery and emotion of an entire generation of young people standing up and trying to change the world.”

And without mentioning the NRA by name, El also blasted the organization:

to any organization that opposes, slanders or seeks to discredit these people trying desperately to change their world in some real way for the better, make no mistake: we aren’t on the same “side,” as I believe that any “side” that looks at empathy as a weakness and change as a threat can not be connected to the human spirit and therefor cannot be just.

But in an accompanying statement, El also affirmed that he and Mike might disagree about certain things but that they will always stand by each other. He defended Mike passionately: “we know this guy. he fucking cares. its what sets him apart in his music and in his life. he stands up when others can’t or wont. he tries when others don’t.” El allows that he’s “bummed at the way this unfolded” but writes, “he doesn’t need me to defend him but fuck that here we are and i’m doing that.”

Here are El-P’s two statements:

2 things i need to say. pic.twitter.com/q8GrxQeWPs

— el-p (@therealelp) March 26, 2018

And here’s Mike’s response to El’s statement:

I am so humbled to be your friend, brother & group member. I am so grateful to have an ally always. I apologize for my bull in a china store like tendencies! I drive u nuts but i promise u I love ya brother & will always do what’s right. Thank u for your underserved suffering https://t.co/VwOyCcVkls

— Killer Mike (@KillerMike) March 26, 2018