SLUG: I don't even know how to begin to process this. I'm kind of lost cuz I leave town in like six days. I don't want to leave cuz I have a family here. Renee Good is not that different from my own partner and we have three children. Life is full of bad ones. We could all catch one. You know what I'm saying? There’s there's plenty of misfortune out there for us to step in. Adults are in charge and they're acting like children and that's how [things] can go wrong.

WES: George Floyd was also in Minneapolis.

Yep. Just down the street.

From where you are now and from where George Floyd was kids?

Yeah. From where I'm sitting right now, down the street. The Renee Good murder was a little bit further away.

What did you tell your kids?

I didn't have to tell them anything. We just have to talk about it. I want to know what they're thinking. I want to be able to respond to them genuinely and authentically. I try not to spill too far into my conspiracy theories when I'm talking to the kids.

I keep quiet inside the house. I'm louder outside the house, if that makes any sense. I try to be as direct but just try to see what they're thinking. What their friends are talking about. How these kids are dealing with it, so I could just kind of help maybe throw some detail on the illustration.

Ultimately just like you or me, the way that we saw the world as kids is the way that we saw the world as kids. The adults could never come and force their vision upon us. If I could just learn what they're seeing and just kind of help mold it.

It's a family that is not supportive of this type of federal agency doing what they're doing. My family all see that because they see it through the lens of they have friends who have accents.

You feel me?

They have friends from other places. And these are their people. These are their friends. And there's no borders. There's no political affiliation. We're playing soccer.

And so that's a good pure place to start with this conversation. This conversation has been what it has been for the last year.

Just in regards to the concept of ICE and what they're here to do and what we're told Their goals vs. what the actions really are, you know, etc. It's like just try to keep things real and see if we could keep the video from replaying a thousand times on a screen in front of them..

I understand it’s traumatic. People need to understand things at the same time. I appreciate what you said about like just listening to KRS ONE. If you're saying a kid decides his own opinion, but if you hear some wisdom from KRS one, you learn something and then that applies…

Everybody takes a situation like this and they apply it to whatever their lens is. There’s so much emphasis on a political lens.

Like I said, my parents weren’t very political. A lot of people weren't.

It's just like, I remember a time in my own young adult life where people just weren't that involved. There are so many people involved and so many people have opinions on everything and so many lines being drawn and so much just super hard division and people being like: "Well, I have to pick one team. It's either A or B." And I feel like that's a problem within itself.

But when a situation, a tragedy like this occurs, the fact that one team has empathy for the victim and one team has empathy for the agent, that really concerns me because I feel like anybody could have empathy for a victim. I feel like anybody could have empathy for what's been happening in Palestine.

I hope that her kids are really at the forefront of where this goes starting now because nobody's talking about those children other than to say she had three children. At the end of the day, regardless of which side you are on, this woman died. Whatever you could figure out how to get yourself to believe a side.

ICE killed a minivan-driving-soccer-mom.

Hip Hop is a culture where we were against a secret police using white supremacy as a tool to increase surveillance and impose martial law. Let’s ease back and discuss this music we love.

You’re touring with Kool Keith of Ultramagnetic MC’s, Dr. Octagon

I am touring Kool Keith.

Kool Keith is a legend.

Kool Keith is a legend. Yes.

UltramagneticMC’s or Dr. Octagon.

Ultra Magnetic. Dr. Octagon was dope. The dopest part about Dr. Octagon was its existence.

You should see Ultramagnetic playing these festivals. I see some of these artists that I love from back then playing these festivals here and there. You know what I'm saying?  And you should see Ced Gee and Kool Keith up there doing that. Do Critical Beatdown from front to back. And then as an encore do Poppa Large.

You know what I’m saying.

Slug of Atmosphere believes Ultramagnetic MC’s album Critical Beatdown is a classic album. Atmosphere, Kool Keith, RA The Ruggedman, Sage Francis, and Mr. Dibbs will be at Kemba Live Columbus, Ohio January 27, 2026.