Killer Mike posted two videos Sunday apologizing for a video interview he did with the National Rifle Association.
The rapper, who was born Michael Render, had faced backlash after NRA TV shared the piece on the same day the March For Our Lives rallies were held across the country. Killer Mike said the interview had been shot a week before.
Well known for his political and social activism, the rapper has frequently spoken out on various topics including police brutality.
In the NRA video, he criticized National School Walkout Day — in which students left classes to pay tribute to the 17 people killed at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School a month earlier and to demand stricter gun control laws.
Killer Mike said in the video he posted on social media Sunday that he supports the youth-driven gun control movement.
“I’m sorry that an interview I did about a minority, black people in this country, and gun rights was used as a weapon against you guys,” he said. “That was unfair to you and it was wrong, and it disparaged some very noble work you’re doing.”
The rapper said in the NRA video that he has worked with groups from both sides of the gun control issue and “tries to see a problem from the whole perspective.”
“I told my kids on the school walkout, ‘I love you, [but] if you walk out that school, walk out my house,'” he said.
“We are a gun-owning family, we are a family that my sister farms, we are a family where we’ll fish and hunt, but we are not a family that jumps on every single thing that an ally of ours does because some stuff we just don’t agree with.”
The video immediately drew criticism on social media.
In his follow-up apology Killer Mike encouraged the student activists to continue their work and said he was sorry his video had been used to disparage the march.
“My interview with said organization who we all don’t agree with was supposed to be something that continued the conversation and that conversation is about African-American gun ownership,” he said. “I do support the march and I support black people owning guns. It’s possible to do both.”
