This is for the never heard, never even got a motherfuckin’ word…
Q)What do you get when you combine one of hip-hop’s dopest producers that can also spit a verse and hold his own with any of the greats with a lyricist who comes from the same vein as Malcom X and 2pac?
A) Run The Jewels aka RTJ aka Killer Mike and El-P, arguably the greatest duo that hip-hop has produced. They have mastered the art of making phat basslines and combining them with rhyme craft that compounds syllables at a rate that will leave a sitting listeners fitbit wondering if they just started jogging then why isn’t the accelerometer counting steps?!
One moment they take the listener into an entertaining and humorous world of self-parody the next a vulgar display of wordsmanship affirms they are not docile creatures. More fundamentally they question themselves and the world around them, speak their truth to power and encourage others to do the same.
I had been hearing Killer Mike before then but I really started listening when I heard the track Flip Flop Rock on the Outcast album Speakerboxxx. Here was a lyricist who was inviting the listener to OVERSTAND, to take things further than just understanding. To believe in yourself and aspire for better things no matter how dark your current surroundings might be.
Since those teenage days to now, Killer Mike has been a person whose music I felt contained aspects relatable to the life of myself and those around me. Though we come from very different places with an ocean between them the themes he addresses are universal to a majority of western society. He has continued to be both a source of inspiration and motivation. I can honestly say that I would not be where I am right now, and the project I am a part of would not be as it is without K-M and El-P.
I had originally planned on writing a review of the RTJ track ´JU$T` as one of the first pieces of Mycelium Network Media’s Muzic section. Upon being reminded of the news that RTJ were in the middle of performing shows at Madison Square Garden I wanted to go further and congratulate them and offer them my thanks.
Congratulations at completing a self-fulfilling prophecy of performing ‘Li-li-li-li-Live from the Garden` and thanks for setting a message and an example for others to manifest their own prophecy through dedication and self-belief.
With such a catalogue of Quotables’s it’s hard for the author to single out which part of their messages struck me the most. With music to suit all moods they have tracks that strike different at different times. The following words resonate on a deeper plain for me.
‘We brag on having bread, but none of us are bakers
We all talk having greens, but none of us own acres
If none of us own acres, and none of us grow wheat
Then who will feed our people when our people need to eat?
So it seems our people starve from lack of understanding
Cause all we seem to give them is some ballin’ and some dancin’
And some talkin’ about our car and imaginary mansions
We should be indicted for bullshit we inciting
Handin’ children death and pretendin’ it’s excitin’
We are advertisements for agony and pain’
“Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.”
― Cesar A. Cruz
JU$T
A powerhouse collaboration that brings Zack de la Rocha and Pharrell to the RTJ Mixing Pot. From the signature 4beat start the listener is challenged to consider their place in this world. Value systems and power are themes that are touched upon as well as other ‘markers of success’ such as gaining popularity on social media. This is not the first time the Rage Against The Machine lyricist and Doctor of anthropology has teamed up with RTJ to question the zeitgeist of hegemonic society.
Verse two kicks off with El-P dropping so many double entendre that one could write an article on that alone. Beginning by playing with the theme of success vs disaster using baseball as a metaphorical device he continues to question commonly spread notions such as money not mattering. The line ’Got a Vonnegut punch for your Atlas shrug’ is like a ZIP file of condensed meaning. Hitting hard the far right ideology espoused by Ayn Rand that one should pursue self interest over all else. This is praise worthy practice of satire, a technique often deployed by El-P, which could be surmised as acknowledging our place as members of a collective being far more rewarding than being selfish and apathetic.
The closing verse see’s Zack de la Rocha continue with entendre bombing. Touching on the biblical message that a focus on money over humanity will bring about an apocalyptic reckoning. He closes out with the line ‘But the breath in me is weaponry’ encouraging the listener to become aware that while we are living we can change our circumstances for the better. A theme which carries throughout the RTJ catalogue.
