Killer Mike - "Songs for Sinners & Saints"
While officially billed as Michael & The Mighty Midnight Revival, Songs For Sinners & Saints is really just the next Killer Mike album. More specifically, it’s the followup to last year’s award-winning Michael, which ranked 25th overall on my personal end-of-year rankings. It was an incredible album which propelled Mike into the mainstream in an unprecedented way and won him several awards; Killer Mike is a legend in some circles (I certainly regard him as one), but has never managed to really gain any serious popularity beyond the success of Run the Jewels, his side-project with El-P.
At some point, Mike decided he wasn’t done with the Gospel-infused Hip-Hop of Michael, and decided to follow it up with an epilogue, as he described it. The adjusted billing name on the album gives credit to Mike’s gospel choir, The Mighty Midnight Revival, who are crucial to this sound.
In short, if you enjoyed Michael, there’s just more to love here. The majority of the album does a great job of following in that vein and adding more great songs to Mike’s repertoire. Most notably, perhaps, is “Humble Me”, which details Mike’s perspective of his controversial night at the Grammies, which ended with him being arrested after winning three awards. Exactly what happened is seemingly still unclear, but Mike apparently had a confrontation with an “over-zealous security guard”.
Songs for Sinners & Saints has one serious flaw, though, in that it fails to stand entirely on its own. It is an epilogue, yes, but its tracklist is weakened by having three of its ten tracks be reworks of tracks from Michael:
3: “Exit 9 (Scenic Route)” is a rework of “Exit 9”;
7: “Slummer 4 Junkies” is a ten-minute long rework and mashup of “Slummer” and “Something For Junkies”; and
10: Closing track “Still Talk’n That Shit” is a rework of “Talk’n That Shit”
Those three tracks total over sixteen minutes; the album’s total length is 39 minutes. Two of the remaining seven tracks (intro track “Bussin Bricks Intro” and “Had to Go Get It”) are shorter than two minutes.
The remaining five songs are SOLID, though. Mike is at the top of his game, and this is worth a listen. It just so happens that if you’re looking to purchase the album, only half of the tracks are really worth it.
Rating: Green