For Killer Mike, Only a Black Woman Can Understand His Struggle

Killer Mike is here to let you know that when it comes to choosing a life partner, he’s riding with Black women all the way.

During a Valentine’s Day appearance on “The Breakfast Club,” co-host Charlamagne Tha God asked the GRAMMY award-winning rapper to elaborate on a statement he made during an earlier appearance on their show. “I married a Black woman. A lot of my critics did not,” he told the group back in 2019.

Mike (born Michael Render) told Charlamagne he borrows from Blackness all around and quoted Black conservative economist Walter E. Williams, who said marriage is the only time he condones Black people choosing to exclude other races.

“Walter E. Williams said there’s only one case he agreed with in terms of segregation,” Render said. “He says, that when it comes to marriage, you should marry a Black woman.”

The Atlanta-based rapper called his wife, Shana Render, his best friend, adding that he appreciates her mind for business, the way she is there for their children as well as her physical appearance. Seeing her as the total package, Render doesn’t think he would get the same support from a woman of a different race.

“Who’s going to understand me like a Black woman? Who gon’ understand my pain, my strife, my struggle? Who’s going to understand culturally how important it is for my Black children to be proud to be Black? Even when she didn’t birth these children, she’s still their mother. Nobody’s going to do that like a Black woman,” he said.

While he’s not here to criticize anyone else for their life choices, Render says he’s looking sideways at anyone who comes for him if they don’t have a Black partner.

“You can’t critique me about being Black. I live in a Black neighborhood. I grew up in a Black community,” he said. “I still help the same Black high school and college and elementary schools I went to. Ni**a, you can’t get Blacker than me because when I wake up in the middle of the night, I wake up next to a Black wife.”