CD Review: Run the Jewels – “RTJ4” (2020)

Whereas most musicians have been spending recent months making quarantine albums that capture the soul-crushing loneliness, Run the Jewels have unintentionally created the anthem for something else just as relevant. Every track on “RTJ4” feels like it was designed for this moment, recorded the moment that a police officer stood on George Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, screaming “I can’t breathe” before dying. You can understand why rappers Killer Mike and El-P are angry. We’re all angry with nationwide protests now entering the double digits of days as cops tear gas and assault protestors, as news of Breona Taylor’s death becomes public knowledge. We need justice for every slain Black person at the hand of law enforcement, and you know how Run the Jewels does it?

From the word go, Run the Jewels come blazing down the street at 100 mph, ready to knock over targets with brutal precision. This is an angry album, and one whose messages of racial and political strife have rarely been this clear. This is the most pointed album that they have released in their seven years together. If you don’t understand what they’re saying, you’re just not listening carefully enough. There is no mincing words. As we found out in a recent speech as Killer Mike reported on a protest in Atlanta, Georgia, he understands their anger. In fact, the release of “RTJ4” was moved up for a few days because Killer Mike believed it would do the world good to have it as a coping mechanism.

From the announcement e-mail

What makes the album eerie is not only how relevant it is, but that it’s unlikely that it was recorded in the recent past. Every note is executed with such focus that it clearly took months of effort to perfect. Also, moments such as when Killer Mike yells “I can’t breathe” over “Walking in the Snow,” aren’t specific to Floyd. They’re not even specific to the man who made it a Black Lives Matter slogan, Eric Garner. It’s something that several Black men have said in similar situations. The fact that “RTJ4” is a blazing ember is sadly coincidental, reflecting how the systematic problems have been carrying on for centuries. If anything, its vision only seems so clear because of The George Floyd Protests going on right now.

Of course, it’s fascinating to note that while they have felt omnipresent with each passing year, Run the Jewels haven’t actually released an album in four years. In that time they have had music featured in films like Black Panther (2018) and Baby Driver (2017), Killer Mike had a Netflix show called Trigger Warning, and their strategy of releasing everything for free (though you can pay whatever you want as well) on their website has only made them more accessible. This is rap for the masses. What may have started as a goofy collaboration has become something more essential, reflective of Black anger that hasn’t been this confrontational since Public Enemy’s heyday. 

In case you haven’t checked in with Run the Jewels since 2016, allow Killer Mike to reintroduce himself on “Yankee and the Brave (Ep. 4)”:

Back at it like a crack addict, Mr. Black Magic

Crack a bitch back, chiropractic, Craftmatic

The album is full of internal rhyme, showing how impatient this album is, eager to use every word as its own percussive piece, making clever wordplay pop and throw the listener off guard as they enter this world of hot rage. The instrumentation blares behind, clapping beats and a booming bass overwhelm the ears, making the listener become overwhelmed by the energy. As Killer Mike suggests, the album is as addictive as crack (metaphorically, anyway). While what follows will hold more importance than braggadocio, for now, it’s warm-up session as the players are reintroduced. 

It’s clear that they have missed baseball, as they have used two teams to distinguish their identity on the album. El-P is Yankee (of New York) and Killer Mike is The Brave (of Atlanta, GA). This helps to create a conversation that goes beyond one community, reflecting that the problems are more widespread. This first song is the rallying cry, get the troops together, and prepare for battle. This is an album that will feature one of the most diverse groups ever, and it proves how many are ready to act.

Things kick off with a fun little ditty in “Ooh La La,” which mixes a fun chorus with some of their most pointed commentaries so far. It’s a story about causing a ruckus, with Greg Nice and DJ Premier adding flourishes. While being a political album at its heart, it’s interesting to hear Killer Mike break out into the occasional pop culture reference:

I used to love Bruce, but livin' my vida loca

Helped me understand I'm probably more of a Joker

When we usher in chaos, just know that we did it smiling

Cannibals on this island, inmates run the asylum

In four bars, it’s a much more interesting take on political uprising with Batman iconography than Joker (2019). Then again, what follows isn’t hollow imagery with base-level solutions, but some of the most pointed ideas. What we’re experiencing right at the offset is the blizzard of anger that one faces when initially confronted with anger, needing to clear one’s head so that change can be made. Sure, there are references to police brutality and violence early on, but these songs are appetizers, waiting for the big meal that is about to come.

One of the most pointed commentaries comes in “Goonies Vs. E.T.,” which takes a moment to stop arguing about the bigger picture and directly targets people that may be considered their fans. The thing to understand is that Run the Jewels aren’t just mad, they actually go out of their way to make a social difference. They’re not hypocrites, and their anger comes from someplace genuine. It is why their decision to take on woke culture amid bigger targets forces their audience to begin questioning their value to the cause:

Now I understand that woke folk be playin'

Ain't no revolution that's televised and digitized

You've been hypnotized and Twitter-ized by silly guys

Cues to the evenin' news, make sure you ill-advised

If this sounds jarring, it’s for good intent. While Run the Jewels have been publicly supportive of fans for allowing them to make music, this take feels staggering. It’s forcing the listener to ask themselves what they’re wanting to get out of listening to politically charged music. Do they really want change, or do they want to just have an angry album? Considering that most people achieve this solely through social media, one has to question what value their platform is ultimately making when so much damage is being done in the real world. It’s a call to question your values and hopefully make a change. Don’t roll up your window and keep driving. They could use every supporter they can for the change.

The next song, “Walking in the Snow,” may be the most brutal song on the entire album. With the image of snow, it could be seen as a metaphor for African Americans walking through a white world, full of systemic racism that makes everything uncomfortable. There’s the imagery of Guantanamo Bay and cages, finding every possible allegory for imprisonment. It leads to a moment that feels like it was done directly after George Floyd’s death, even if he’s not the only reference point here:

And every day on the evening news, they feed you fear for free

And you so numb, you watch the cops choke out a man like me

Until my voice goes from a shriek to whisper, "I can't breathe"

And you sit there in the house on couch and watch it on TV

The most you give's a Twitter rant and call it a tragedy

This is all a call to action and one that feels more pointed now that peaceful protests are ripe with activists speaking out and others being brutalized by the cops. Things are starting to change. This is the second act that Killer Mike was talking about in his press conference following the Atlanta protests. He understands their anger. It’s been inside of him his whole life, and you get the sense that he’s tired by this point, taking to task anyone who talks the talk but refuses to walk. He wants you to get up and walk out. You should feel ashamed for not being out there on the frontlines fighting for change. It’s lonely out there, and Run the Jewels can use every person they can get.

Another highlight is “JU$T,” which focuses on a different kind of racism. It’s also the opportunity to find the worlds of Pharrell Williams and Zack de la Rocha (Rage Against the Machine) colliding as a discussion of economics paves the way to the album’s most memorable line on the whole album: “look at all those slave masters posin’ on yo dollar.” Whereas Williams is more collected, de la Rocha brings a sledgehammer that breaks the distortion barrier. 

It’s a chance to discuss the history of slavery and how even if the 13th Amendment was passed, there are still problems. People still don’t want more politically correct figures on their currency. It’s a white man’s world, and they won’t tolerate no Harriet Tubman on a $10 bill. The trap beat works so well at making the usual swag brag into these subliminal shouts of “slave” and “get it” as ways of showing how these ideas are implicit, informing America’s identity for so long. Rarely has a song with so much urgency been allowed to reference Kurt Vonnegut and Stephen King’s “IT” (“Beep beep, Richie, this is New York City”) with deeper meaning.

The album is a war zone of ideas where even the spottier songs (“The Ground Below”) come with a ferocity that you can’t deny. It’ll leave you with ideas that make you want to see things differently. It’s music as the ultimate persuasion, finding sympathy through anger in such a way that it makes Run the Jewels feels more purposeful than ever before. They have always tackled hard issues, but now it’s forthright, where “Pulling the Pin” can have Mavis Staples sing with agonizing woe and have the listener understand their pain. This is a portrait of America not as it should be but in need of desperate change. This is a wound, perfectly captured in a lyrical form that finds Killer Mike and El-P collaborating with their most confident collection yet.

Things all build up to the visceral epic “A Few Words For the Firing Squad (Radiation),” which ends the album with a song full of dark and dramatic tones, guitars playing battle cries towards the end as if the sound is being suppressed. This is a moment where they put aside their anger long enough to get personal. Who are Run the Jewels as individuals, and why are they so mad? 

Dead serious, it's a chore not to let myself go insane

It's crippling, make you wanna lean on a cup of promethazine

But my queen say she need a king, not another junkie, flunky rapper fiend

Friends tell her, "He could be another Malcolm, he could be another Martin"

She told her partner, "I need a husband more than the world need another martyr"

It’s a struggle that punctuates everything that comes before in a more heartbreaking light. This hasn’t been Killer Mike carelessly using his power. This is him recognizing his vulnerability, managing to conjure up imagery of activists Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. while noting that they were murdered for their causes. Killer Mike is loved. He needs to be there for his family. Considering that he previously discussed the passing of his mother (and El-P will talk about his sister Sarah in the next bit), you understand him questioning the value of life on a more personal note.

It’s the most poignant way to end an album so intent on change. At the end of it all, the anger isn’t without purpose. This is all because we want to live safely and happily, to raise families and live the American Dream. But what is the American Dream when it doesn’t include everyone? As the album comes to an end, Killer Mike leaves us with this:

This is for the do-gooders that the no-gooders used and then abused

For the truth tellers tied to the whippin' post, left beaten, battered, bruised

For the ones whose body hung from a tree like a piece of strange fruit

Go hard, last words to the firing squad was, "Fuck you too"

As is the case for many songs on this album, death underlines the frustration of Run the Jewels. They want to live in a happier world, but what happens when the do-gooders are taken advantage of? Is there any justice in that? There is as much a sense of worry for his personal safety as he is knowing the need to speak up here, believing that even if he’s in front of the firing squad he doesn’t need to sell out to their vision. Recalling songs like “Strange Fruit” (itself about a Black person being lynched), it shows how this problem has existed through time in different ways. When it cuts back to the “Yankee and the Brave” framework, it shows the divide between how fiction sees this violence and reality.

While every Run the Jewels album is worthy of a listen, this is one with impeccable clearness, capable of making every line pop with meaning. It’s as fierce and confrontational as it is amusing, the instrumentation overwhelms the listener, demanding your blood pressure to go up. This is all a subliminal quest to listen and fight for change. Don’t just see it and feel bad about the way the world is. Make it what you want it to be. It’s coincidental that the album came out now when the message needs to be heard more than ever, but that just shows how much this problem isn’t specifically tied to this moment. “RTJ4” will go down as the group’s definitive achievement, and more than anything it will capture why the anger felt right now isn’t just some pointless frustration. It’s a pointed yell for change.