To celebrate the launch of the schedule for the 2023-24 NBA season, the Atlanta Hawks collaborated up with GRAMMY® Award-winning rapper and Atlanta native Killer Mike to create a special video delivered by Papa Johns that looked ahead at some of the season’s most exciting matchups, while also celebrating the release of his new album, ‘Michael’.
Raised in the Adamsville/Collier Heights neighborhood on the Northwest side of the city, Render made a name for himself as an activist well before he ever recorded a song. As the grandson of a union member grandfather and civil rights advocate grandmother, being socially and politically active is in his blood.
Michael Render and his wife and business partner, Shana Render, opened the first S.W.A.G. Shop at State Farm Arena during the $192M renovation of the building. This four-chair barbershop overlooks the action and ensures fans are looking their freshest on gamedays.
Mike sat down with Hawks.com to talk about his career, his new album and his ties to the Hawks.
WHAT WAS THE INSPIRATION BEHIND YOUR NEW ALBUM, ‘MICHAEL’?
“Growing up on the west side of Atlanta, literally, I grew up maybe four and a half or five miles from the old Omni Arena, west of that. We would ride our bike straight up Collier, turn to Simpson and up to Northside Drive, and dream of sneaking in and watching [Hawks legend] Dominique Wilkins play. That’s how close I grew up.
That side of town made me proud – where it was a successful super successful Black enclave. It was the place where my grandparents had chosen to cash down and plant their seeds and a house there. I was damn proud to go to Douglas and Collier Heights and to be a product of Morehouse. Man, I can’t tell you, this city has made me the proud guy I am.”
HOW IMPORTANT WAS IT FOR YOU TO FEATURE SO MANY ATLANTA LEGENDS ON THE ALBUM?
“For me, the features on this album are organic. Because these people, I’m a fan of, friends with, family with, and deeply respect in some way. So whether it was new people that I just met during the making of this record like Eryn Allen Koehn, who ended up being on five records, or Fousheé who came in and did something simple on the slammer, or old friends like Jagged Edge and Cee-Lo and Rico Wade, it was just a rich experience for me.
This is the album I’ve been chasing well 20 years. I’ve literally been chasing 20 years, and I finally got it. I finally got an autobiographical album – that’s true to my life story, but relates to the salt of the earth working class person that’s listening on the other side, too.”
WHEN YOU DECIDE YOU’RE GOING TO RECORD A NEW ALBUM, WHAT DOES THAT PROCESS LOOK LIKE?
“With an artist, you don’t really decide. There’s just something. There’s a compulsion that happens. I didn’t decide, ‘Well, it’s time.’ I’ve always been tinkering with ideas and thoughts, putting stuff to the side and avoiding certain emotions. What happens is, the compulsion gets so great, you can’t sleep because it won’t let you sleep. You won’t be satisfied, no matter how much success you have, other than that compulsion. You have to see it through.”
WHAT COMES FIRST IN THE SONGWRITING PROCESS, THE LYRICS OR THE BEAT?
“The music – this time around. There are certain times you’ll have a word or phrase, and ideally, as you go to find the music that matches the emotion, but this time around, I played the beats and me and Cuz Lightyear, we just promised ourselves. We did it like five days a week, Monday through Friday or Tuesday through Saturday. We’d go in at 10 to about five in the morning, maybe six in the morning, like working the third shift.
We’d get beat packs from producers. We put beats on and if the beats didn’t catch us in the first 20 or 30 seconds, we didn’t waste time trying to amend or make a way. We just knew this isn’t for us. So, the production played a big part. We wanted to production to be soulful, gospel-y, cinematic, so we knew what type of sounds and feelings we were going for.
We knew we wanted that tapestry of beats to be able to be stitched together like a quilt because we wanted people to feel and see an audio movie of sorts as they wrote or sat or cleaned the house to it. And goal accomplished!
The many producers on here from the honorable C.N.O.T.E. to No I.D. to El-P, the co-producer with No I.D., the Beat Butchers, Cool & Dre, Corey Mo, having all these guys, just gave me the absolute best. Don Cannon, the Atlanta guy, having all these guys give me their best and No I.D., who executive produced the project, bringing in Dammo on bass and Agape on guitar, brothers like writer Harold Lilly.
It targeted the musical theater I had wanted. The beats were very important to create the backdrop. The words and lyrics were very autobiographical, and that’s how it usually works. Usually, the beats inspire the words, and that’s the way it worked this time.”
CHANGING TOPICS, WHAT ARE YOU MOST EXCITED FOR IN THIS UPCOMING SEASON OF HAWKS BASKETBALL?
“I really think we’ve made some significant improvements. Defensively, I think that the new players that we’re bringing in, some of the new players are going to be a beast in terms of just giving some other teams hell, in terms of handling that ball and trying to get to that basket. I just think that Trae [Young] has evolved into a leader. Coaches really haven’t seemed to have a great relationship with him, and I think the whole city is determined to see these guys win. I think the Braves being winners are giving them a reason to say, ‘Us, too!’
What an environment it is right now. Everybody feels like it’s going up! Everybody feels like, well, because of my album, “Michael” or the Braves’ current record, the Hawks are expected to win by not only themselves, but by their fans. And I think that there’s something very addictive about positive energy being sent your way. I’m thinking that guys are going go, and I want them to go all the way. I’m saying they’re going to go all the way. Let’s get it.”
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE HAWKS BASKETBALL MEMORY?
“My favorite Hawks basketball memory is seeing the Hawks of the late 1980s. Just that Larry Bird versus Dominique rivalry, because Dominique Wilkins was all we had. Bird had McHale and so many other players. I wasn’t mad at any other players, but I knew that Dominique just left it on the court every single night. I knew he was truly trying to carry a team. He never had a Pippen. No disrespect to any other player including Doc, who I love, but he just never truly had that second killer.
We cheered for the Hawks. This is a heck of a memory, but I remember my dad, who was just a working-class guy. I remember he took me to a Hawks game, and I can’t remember for the life of me who they played that night. Our seats were probably nosebleeds, but just having some popcorn with my old man watching Dominique Wilkins take the floor just meant the world to me.”
WHAT STILL EXCITES YOU ABOUT THE SWAG SHOP AT STATE FARM ARENA?
“It’s been five amazing years, and the SWAG Shop is not just about getting a haircut. We give great haircuts. We have great hair washers, you can get shaved, washed and groomed there, but it’s a culture.
I want you to come in because you’re cool, and because we’re cooler with you and you walk out the door even cooler. Come and get some swag, pick up a t-shirt or pick up a cap. We’re going to be introducing some cool new products this year. I want people just to come out and hang. You can come in, drink a beer, have the same VIP section-type view that people have to pay thousands of dollars for, and you get it just by being a SWAG Shop customer.
And, even if you don’t buy things, we’d like you to just hang out. So, when you come in and get by ticketing, right by that Dominique Wilkins’ statute and by the time you get in, turn to your left, and we’re right there waiting to greet you.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE IN-SEASON TOURNAMENT?
“I think we’re not going to settle for winning that. We want that ring in the spring. Georgia as SEC champions is cool, but National Champions is a hell of a lot cooler.”
LAST NOT BUT NOT LEAST…WHAT DOES BEING “TRUE TO ATLANTA” MEAN TO YOU?
"Cheer our guys! Cheer our team and supporting local and medium-sized businesses. That could be anything from Slutty Vegan, Bankhead Seafood, the SWAG Shop or Big Dave’s Cheesesteaks. I think that it is having a spirit of cooperation and collaboration, no matter your race, creed, color or ethnicity.
Atlantans tend to cooperate and collaborate well together. Support local initiatives that may be social or political in nature, but that are good for us all. Whether it is feed the homeless or get out and clean the parks, do that. It means to understand that we’re planting seeds now that are going to be, 50 years from now, sometime when we’re long gone, are going to be furthering to help other Atlantans. Treat the soil like it’s precious.”