Despite Georgia Governor Brian Kemp making the decision to “re-open” the state’s economy this Friday (April 24), not every resident is amenable to the idea. Namely, Michael Render — aka Killer Mike — says that his own businesses will remain closed, as Mike maintains that he is unwilling to put his employees and customers’ health at risk. According to TMZ, Mike believes that it is still too early to lift coronavirus precautions, telling TMZ Live that his Swag Shop chain of barbershops won’t re-open with the rest of Georgia’s small businesses.
“Our first concern is the safety of our employees and the safety of our customers,” he said, despite admitting that he wanted to reopen the shops for obvious reasons. “We have an incentive to open, we could use that incentive, and we definitely wanna make money. [But] at this time, as a business, we aren’t comfortable opening. We’re gonna wait a while before we reopen.”
He also pointed out that Black communities — i.e., his main customer base — have been disproportionately affected by the impact of the COVID-19 coronavirus, while noting that the Governor should communicate more openly with Atlanta’s mayor Keisha Bottoms, who is also opposed to lifting restrictions. “As a citizen in the community where people look like me, I’m choosing to stay closed because I don’t want to endanger [anybody],” he said. “And a lot of times, politicians have different views of things. I think governors and mayors should all get on the phone together because as your constituents, we need you to do that.”
Watch Killer Mike’s interview with TMZ Live above.
