It has been a week, to say the very least. Waves of protests ignited by the murder of George Floyd, spawned from decades of injustice and insensitivity to our Black communities have been non-stop for over a week now. This movement has been a long time coming and I like so many others am ashamed that it has taken this long. I am so sorry. I didn't realize how deeply rooted racism is because I didn't ask. Because I thought I couldn't help. I didn't realize I needed to educate myself.
In the wake of the devastation that the music industry has faced since being hit with COVID-19 cancellations, musicians from what I've seen have been the first to step up. Musicians and Jamie Foxx, who made an appearance at a rally in front of San Francisco's City Hall on Monday June 1st where he urged his Hollywood friends to come out from behind the screen and support the movement. Foxx took a knee in solidary with Mayor London Breed, he sang a little bit and after his speech he brought out TANK.
You can thank the music industry for launching Black Out Tuesday June 2nd which was meant to be a day when the music industry took a break from social media to educate themselves and their companies about race and allow for knowledge about race/racism/anti-racism to spread across social media outlets without clogging it up with unrelated posts. Sadly, the public took the idea and ran with it, causing all types of confusion about which hashtags to use, which hashtags not to use and if you should post a black square or not.
Yesterday Billie Eilish, Matt and Kim and Joe Jonas were spotted marching in the High Land Park protest in Los Angeles. Kayne West reportedly gave $2 million to George Floyd's daughter for her college fund but he hasn't announced if he is still a MAGA & Trump supporter (as of April he still was).
The loudest support in music so far has come from hip-hop duo, Run The Jewels. In March, El-P and Killer Mike teased the release of their album with the release of the first single from it, "Yankee and the Brave." RTJ4, their fourth album was due out on Friday, June 5th.
The course of history started changing before our eyes following the murder of George
Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Monday May 25th.
One week later on Monday June 1st amidst, protests turned to riots , Killer Mike made a powerful speech in Atlanta, where he is from. He wore a black shirt baring lyrics from one of his then up-coming new songs. In bold white text his shirt proclaimed, Kill Your Masters.
I am not going to tell you what Killer Mike says in the video because I want you to see it for yourself.
You need to hear what he says.
You need to see and hear and feel the emotions behind his words.
On Wednesday, June 3rd Run The Jewels dropped their 4th album, RTJ4 two days early.
Along with dropping the album ahead of schedule, Run The Jewels is also letting you "pay what you want" to own a digital copy of RTJ4. you can download the album from their website www.runthejewels.com for free and when you proceed to check out, enter the amount that you want to pay/donate. All proceeds go to the Mass Defense Program.
The album opens with the single, "Yankee and the Brave". A rhythmic, synth heavy, beat dropping war with the police anthem with a chorus that has the familiarity of the sound of gun shots. Is it weird that they were making music about this topic before all of the protests in the streets? No. It's not. And they're not the first. What they're rapping about has been going on for a long time, for too long and they're not the first to rap about it. Music, albums, songs are a form of protest, a form of spreading knowledge, enlightening, uniting.
Piano driven "ooh la la" featuring Greg Nice and DJ Premier which was the second single they released off of the album earlier this year and it's the second song on the album.
RTJ4 features a handful of different artists including 2 Chainz on "out of sight", Pharrell Williams on "JU$T" with Zach De La Rocha (Rage Against the Machine), Mavis Staples and Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age) on "pulling the pin."
RTJ4 cover art
The theme of a racist police state is heard through out the album. With lyrics like "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'/ And you sit there in the house on couch and watch on TV" Run the Jewels is talking directly to the people who've done nothing to stop the police brutality against black people.
They're talking to the people who've done nothing to stop the injustice in the judicial system that's affected so many black people and black families.
They're talking to the people who've done nothing to really help black people.
I hope all of those same people who did nothing for so long are listening now.
With an effortless approach, creatively catchy beats, layers of hooks and wickedly smart lyrics that make you listen. Now, with all of the current events that are going on hopefully people will hear what they're saying.
Turn it up, listen to it loud.
Turn it up, listen to it loud.
On June 4th, the day before the album was suppose to drop, Pichfork named RTJ4 best new music and we couldn't agree more. It's great that Run the Jewels is able to utilize this time in history to amplify their message and in turn help amplify the movement.
Don't forget, we are in this together.
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