"I’m glad to end these terrible, difficult times [knowing] that people have genuinely had joy-filled experiences with our music. I got so many calls and videos from homies that were at protest sites where people would take breaks, give each other water, and you would hear 'Oh La La', 'Walking in the Snow' or 'A Few Words to the Firing Squad' in the street. It brought me joy to know that we were there at the times we were needed" - Killer Mike told Spin, after being chosen as the publication's Artist of the Year. His partner in jewelry admits, however, they aren't that serious a band - "we’re the anti-heroes. We’re stumbling around, and we’re crashing cars, slapping babies and getting stoned as fuck and saying the wrong thing. I’d like to think that at the end of the day, those types of heroes are obtainable for people".

Post Malone took home nine 2020 Billboard Music Awards last night, including the top artist prize. Billie Eilish seems to have been on the scene for ages now, but it's actually last year that she came to the music world big-time, so the Best new artist award went to her. Killer Mike took the first-ever Change Maker Award. Check out all the nominees and winners here. CoS argues the telecast ceremony was a "mess", especially Post Malone's performance, who forgot how to lip-sync.

Killer Mike is one of the founding members of the new Black-owned digital bank Greenwood, which distinguishes itself from other digital banks with its emphasis on outreach to Black and Latinx communities, CNN reports. The venture officially launches in January of 2021 but has already received “tens of thousands” of account requests. In addition to offering checking and savings accounts, peer-to-peer transfers, and mobile deposits, the bank allows two-day payday advances for those with direct deposit. Additionally, Greenwood specializes in providing financing for Black and Latinx entrepreneurs, who often face barriers in acquiring small business loans from typical banking services.

Windchimes melt black metal, hardcore and post-rock on 'Zetsubo//Succumb To'; Big Boi, Sleepy Brown, Killer Mike & Big Rubequite released a protest song 'We The Ones' in the vein of funk-infused southern rap; Channel Tres shows how it sounds when hip-hop and house combine on 'Skate Depot'; Stevie Nicks looks to the heavens on 'Show Them The Way'; proggy rockers Transit Method released a video for four of their recently published songs.

Jay-Z has published full-page ads in numerous US newspapers honouring tragic Black Lives Matter icon George Floyd, CNN reports. The ad quotes Martin Luther King's 1965 speech to protesters in Selma, Alabama: "A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right... So we’re going to stand up amid horses... We’re going to stand up right here, amid the billy-clubs... We’re going to stand up amid tear gas!". In similar news, The Weeknd has donated $500,000 to a number of organisations that are committed to racial equality, Variety reports. Killer Mike appeared on 'The Late Show With Stephen Colbert' talking about the same issue, suggesting to white people to "send financial help to some of the organizations... on the ground. Then get your butt down there and help those organizations in the physical" (watch that video here). Speaking broadly about the problem, he added - "what I need white America to do beyond right now is understand that right now is always. It isn't just helping in the now -- it is being a part of fixing it always".

“I want the oppressors, the enemy, to know that they haven’t created complete hopelessness yet” - El-P of Run The Jewels told Guardian about protests in the USA. He explained - “It’s getting to the point where your whole system of racism does not apply any more to the spiritual and mental mindset of the new generation. We have outgrown you, despite your best efforts to keep us in the same place. You are in power, but you are outmoded. You’re the old form of human. And the new form is coming for your neck”. His bandmate Killer Mike adds - “They’re going to preach separation, they’re going to preach fear, conservatism v liberalism – they’re going to keep stoking those fires. So, we have some action to do now. Giving a shit is the first phase: now let’s progress it”. RTJ release their new album this week.

Rapper Killer Mike made an impassioned plea to residents of Atlanta asking them to not vandalize their city while also expressing rage over the murder of George Floyd. “We have to be better than burning down our own homes because if we lose Atlanta, what else we got?” - Killer Mike asked. “It is your duty to not burn your own house down for anger with an enemy. It is your duty to fortify your own house, so that you may be a house of refuge in times of organization. And now is the time to plot, plan, strategize, organize, and mobilize”. He condemned the murder of Floyd, calling for a better system - "we don’t want to see targets burning, we want to see the system that sets up systemic racism, burn to the ground”. Bon Iver's Justin Vernon has shared a similar sentiment: "A police state cannot fix what a police state has broken. Only equal freedom and protection of all citizens can begin to reset the scales of justice”.

Rapper Killer Mike of Run the Jewels has called, in a new op-ed for Colorlines, on black communities in the USA to carry guns. Black people in this country, please take full advantage of your Second Amendment rights. People of color, people who are not in the majority in this country, please take shooting, training, and the protection of your rights seriously" he wrote, adding - "The only person you can count on to protect yourself and your family is you. God gave you the right to use whatever tools available to defend your rights... God gave us the right to use all available tools to defend ourselves and that is what we intend to do".