Kanye West received substantial criticism for meeting with Donald Trump at Trump Tower last December. “I wanted to meet with Trump today to discuss multicultural issues,” Kanye wrote in a series if since-deleted tweets. “These issues included bullying, supporting teachers, modernizing curriculums, and violence in Chicago. I feel it is important to have a direct line of communication with our future President if we truly want change.”
Rapper and part-time political activist Killer Mike defended Kanye's decision to visit Trump in a new Run the Jewels interview with England's Channel 4, saying that the the meeting "didn't bother him."
“Why wouldn’t you?” Mike said. “Black people shouldn’t have permanent friends or enemies, they should have permanent interest. If it wasn’t for Dr. Martin Luther King being willing to meet with people like [Alabama governor] George Wallace, George Wallace would have not have ended up—starting as a racist bigot [and ending] as a person who found God in some way, [and] appointed more blacks to his office than any other governor since him.”
He went on to compare Kanye's Trump meeting with that of NFL legend and civil rights activist Jim Brown. “A musician meeting a presidential candidate isn’t important to me like Jim Brown,” he said. “Jim Brown, for the last 50 years, has fought against the oppression of all people. Him sitting with President Trump was a significant thing for me, because I know on the other side of the table he was telling the truth.”
Watch a clip below. You can view the full interview segment here.