With protests against police brutality and systemic racism ongoing throughout the United States and Canada, many rappers have come forward in solidarity with the revolutionary movement. The legendary rapper and orator Killer Mike recently caught attention with a powerful speech in Atlanta, where he implored those hurting “to strategize, to organize, and to properly mobilize.” Mike’s voice continues to resonate now more than ever, and it’s likely he’ll expand on some of his positions on the upcoming Run The Jewels 4 album.
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Following the announcement that it will arrive this Friday free of charge, an initiative announced by El-P yesterday, the rapper slash producer took to Instagram to preview one of the album’s upcoming tracks “A Few Words For The Firing Squad.” Premiering the song in full, the track features a heavy-build up accentuated by frantic bursts of brass.
“It’s crippling, make you want lean on a cup of promethazine, but my queen say she need a king, not another junkie, flunky rapper fiend,” raps Mike, drawn between love and duty. “Friends tell her he could be another Malcom, he could be another Martin / she told her partner ‘I need a husband more than the world need another martyr.'” El matches Mike’s energy, offering some words of wisdom of his own. “When your surrounded by the fog, treading water in the ice-cold dark,” he spits. “When they got you you feeling like a fox running from another pack a dogs / put the pistol and the fist up in the air, we are there, swear to God.”
Check out the track below, and look for Run The Jewels 4 to arrive in full this Friday.
