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Artist News Releases
Run The Jewels release new album early
By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 4 June 2020
Run The Jewels yesterday put their new album ‘RTJ4’ live, two days ahead of its planned release tomorrow.
“Fuck it, why wait?” the duo – El P and Killer Mike – said together in a message posted online. “The world is infested with bullshit so here’s something raw to listen to while you deal with it all. We hope it brings you some joy. Stay safe and hopeful out there and thank you for giving two friends the chance to be heard and do what they love”.
With a physical release due in September, the record is available now on digital services. You can also get it from the duo’s website as a download on a pay-what-you-want basis.
All proceeds from sales of that download will be donated to the US National Lawyers Guild’s Mass Defense Program, which offers legal support to political activists and protesters and which is, obviously, in particular demand at the moment. When El-P last posted a Twitter update on download sales overnight donations were close to $100,000.
The release follows widespread coverage of a speech made by Killer Mike at a recent press conference organised by the mayor of Atlanta, which was staged after some protests in the city in the wake of the controversial death of George Floyd turned violent. He urged people to direct their anger into changing the system.
“We have to be better than burning down our own homes because if we lose Atlanta, what else we got?” he said. “It is your duty to not burn your own house down for anger with an enemy. It is your duty to fortify your own house, so that you may be a house of refuge in times of organisation. And now is the time to plot, plan, strategize, organise, and mobilise. It is time to beat up prosecutors you don’t like at the voting booth. It’s time to hold mayoral offices accountable, chiefs and deputy chiefs”.
“I’m mad as hell”, he went on. “I woke up wanting to see the world burn down. I’m tired of seeing black men die. He casually put his knee on a human being’s neck for nine minutes as he died like a zebra in the clutch of a lion’s jaw, and we watch it like murder porn, over and over again. That’s why children are burning things to the ground – they don’t know what else to do. And it’s the responsibility of us to make this better, right now”.
