In the days following HBO television host Bill Maher’s nervy “joke,” in which he called himself a “house n**ger,” the downpour of backlash for the inflammatory comment continues to haunt him.

Hip-hop’s highly proclaimed rap veteran and activist Killer Mike, however, has declared that if he were present when the comment was made, something much more painful would be haunting him, too.

“I would have punched Bill in his stomach,” Mike said on TMZ Live when asked what his response would have been had he been there for Bill’s brash remark. “I would have punched Bill in his stomach and said, ‘You sound stupid,’ and we would have smoked a joint after.”

Sharing his directive for those who have white friends prone to the same slip-up, the Run the Jewels member said that such a painful punishment is a good fit for the crime. He also warned that we shouldn’t allow behavior like Maher’s, “joke” or not, to become normalized, and discussed the implications of the TV host’s actions. However, he declared, that’s not to say his First Amendment rights should be left from the equation as well.  

“In matters of what Bill did, if people want to protest him — fine, I support it,” he concluded. “If people want to call for his job — do what you want to do. As for me, though, I am not going to start to limit entertainers in what they can say because when you start doing that, you’re painting yourself into a corner. And you’re going to make sure that one day your First Amendment rights are out the door, and we’re going to live in a fascist country.”  

See his full commentary in the video below.