Killer Mike definitely has his hands full at the moment. The Atlanta rapper is prepping the release of 4th installment of his I Pledge Allegiance to the Grind series, calling it “motivational music”. He tells XXL:
“[I Pledge Allegiance to the Grind IV] is gonna be what Pledge is – motivation music. Anybody who’s listened to Pledge knows that,” he said. “I’m motivated to lose a little weight, so hopefully I’ll be smaller when Pledge IV comes out. The Pledge series has always been about setting goals; it’s been about dope music, but they’ve become almost like research papers with thesis statements. When started PL3DGE with ‘So Glorious’ – you know, ‘My story is so glorious/Fat fly boy, young Notorious’ – it was just my whole description of what I had been through, and Pledge II started with this speech that people love…and Pledge I was about leaving Purple Ribbon and leaving a major label and becoming this new thing on my own, so Pledge has always been about defining who I am at that moment and where me and my supporters can go together…Pledge IV is gonna be more of that over bigger, deffer beats. Harry Fraud is gonna be on that, El-P is gonna be on that.”
In addition to this, he’s also working on the sequel to his critically acclaimed joint album with producer El-P, R.A.P. Music. He says “For R.A.P. Music II, me and El are gonna do shrooms, smoke weed and go back in a do it again.”
He aims to put the above two projects out by 2014 but that’s not all. He’s also working on his next solo album, The Elegant Elephant.
“For The Elegant Elephant, that is my Moby Dick. I’m the captain of a ship on a fuckin’ boat chasing that whale. I’m supposed to evolve into whatever The Elegant Elephant is going to be, and I can’t honestly tell you the sound, except for it’s going to be musical and it’s going to be big and it’s gonna be soulful…[but] I’ll definitely have R.A.P. Music II and Pledge IV finished and ready for 2014.”