RUN THE JEWELS

BY: Jeff Daugherty

It’s unfortunate that RTJ4, the latest album from Killer Mike and El-P‘s rap duo Run the Jewels, arrives at a time when it’s more relevant than ever. The pair’s fourth effort doubles down on the righteous outrage of RTJ 1-3. It’s an anti-authoritarian, anti-establishment record.

The sound of sirens looms ominously in the background on “ooh la la.” On the showstopper track, “walking in the snow,” Mike spits “And you so numb you watch the cops choke out a man like me / Until my voice goes from a shriek to a whisper — ‘I can’t breathe,'” referencing the 2014 murder of Eric Garner. Those same words were repeated by George Floyd just last week when he was murdered by Derek Chauvin.

Killer Mike, as famous for his political activism as he is for his bars, made national headlines last week when he spoke out in Atlanta against police brutality. “It is our responsibility to make this better right now,” he said. “We want to see the system that sets up for systemic racism burnt to the ground.” The speech went viral; Mike later summed up what he was feeling on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: “All I said was what was in my heart.”

If you’re not on hip-hop Twitter, you might have missed the RTJ4 drop — Mike and El-P held off on promoting the new album until today, June 5th, in solidarity with the industry-wide initiative Blackout Tuesday. If you missed it earlier, now is the time to listen to RTJ4 in its entirety. Like the first three Run the Jewels albums (and the profoundly underrated Meow the Jewels), 4 is available on runthejewels.com for free, though the rap duo asks fans to consider donating to a curated list of black charities, including Black Lives Matter and The Bail Project.

Run the Jewels has always been overtly about activism, but RTJ4 goes hard addressing the systemic racism penetrating all levels of American society. The chorus of “JU$T” declares “Look at all these slave masters posin’ on your dollar.” Racism is in this country’s blood and the events of last week demonstrated how far we have to go. Mike and El-P accompanied the album with a note: “The world is infested with bullshit, so here’s something raw to listen to while you deal with it all.”

RTJ4 is out now on digital and available for physical pre-order.