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.
View this post on InstagramRun The Jewels Announce "RTJ 4" Release Date & Share Tracklist
El-P and Killer Mike's "RTJ4" is on the way. June 5th
For anyone who's been waiting on the return of Killer Mike and El-P's Run The Jewels 4, we have some good news for you. El-P hit the Twittersphere earlier today announcing that the hip-hop duo's fourth collaborative album will be arriving next month. The rapper/producer extraordinaire shared a pre-order link that went live at noon but immediately shut down the Run The Jewels website. Instead, El-P followed with another tweet that read, "RTJ4 DROPPING IN 24 DAYS." June 5th, y'all. Get ready.
Jamie McCarthy/Getty ImagesAlong with a pre-order link and a release date, El-P also shared the cover art for the project that features the fist and gun hand logo in gold and black with a pink background. The tracklist was also shared featuring an eclectic array of collaborators. Greg Nice and DJ Premier, of course, appeared on the previously released track, "Ooh La La." Aside from those two, 2 Chainz, Pharrell Williams, Zack De La Rocha, Josh Homme of Queens Of The Stone Age, and Mavis Staples make appearances on the album.
Keep your eyes peeled for RTJ4 and peep the tracklist and album art below.
- Yankee And The Brave (Ep. 4)
- Ooh La LA ft. Greg Nice and DJ Premier
- Out of Sight ft. 2 Chainz
- Holy Calamafuck
- Goonies vs. E.T.
- Walking In The Snow
- Ju$t ft. Pharrell Williams and Zack De La Rocha
- Never Look Back
- The Ground Below
- Pulling The Pin ft. Mavis Staples & Josh Homme
- A Few Word For The Firing Squad
El-P Reveals "Run The Jewels 4" Is Inspired By EPMD
El-P compares “Run The Jewels 4” to the work of the legendary hip-hop duo, EPMD.
With Run The Jewels 4 allegedly complete, El-P compared the group’s latest work to one of hip-hop’s most prominent collectives in EPMD during a recent interview. The 44-year-old Brooklyn-bred emcee took his talents to Vinyl Me Please‘s Good Convo podcast to discuss of a plethora of topics, but it wasn’t until the end of the podcast that host Michael Penn II decided to ask some questions about Run The Jewel’s forthcoming project, Run The Jewels 4.
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El-P was gracious enough to drop some gems on the podcast in regards to his and Killer Mike‘s upcoming musical offering regarding the album’s length, guest features, and a hip-hop comparison that is a tough pair of shoes to fill. According to El-P, the album will be a total of eleven tracks that will run approximately 38 minutes long. The “3 Tearz” rapper then goes on to state that the LP features “guest appearances that you wouldn’t necessarily expect, as well.”
El-P continued saying, “(This album is) the hardest sh*t we’ve ever done — front to back, punch in the face. Absolute mayhem from the moment it starts.”
The original Company Flow member then went on to state that the legendary hip-hop duo of Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith, AKA EPMD, inspired the efforts of their latest project proclaiming:
“We set out to do at a bare minimum what EPMD did for us… They basically have a legendary run of four records… They had four back-to-back the hardest, funniest, dopest records. It’s very rare to get four… I’ll put it to you this way: This should be the record that Run The Jewels falls off. This is not the record that Run The Jewels falls off.”
EPMD’s first four albums; Strictly Business (1988), Unfinished Business (1989), Business As Usual (1990), and Business Never Personal (1992) helped define and shape an era of hip-hop that inspired the Golden age of the world’s most influential music today.
There isn’t an official release date for Run The Jewels 4 as of yet, but with the album supposedly complete we should expect it to arrive in the coming months. Listen to El-P’s full interview on the Good Convo podcast in the streaming link provided below.
"Run The Jewels 4" Is Finished
El-P and Killer Mike have officially finalized "Run The Jewels 4," though a release date has yet to be revealed.
After years of waiting, the creative brain trust that is El-P and Killer Mike, better known as Run The Jewels, have finally wrapped on Run The Jewels 4. El Producto confirmed the news on Twitter this morning with a concise yet hype-inducing proclamation: "RTJ4 is done." Given that the pair have been busy finalizing the project for a minute now, with El previously describing it as a "filthy, dirty, dusty" body of work, the news comes as a pleasant surprise to the duo's loyal fanbase.
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Other than the revelation that the project is "done," much about the fourth installment remains a mystery. Details surrounding guest appearances or a possible release windows remain scarce, though it wouldn't be surprising to see them drop it before hitting the road with Rage Against The Machine in March. While you might be tempted to call that wishful thinking, ask yourself this: why wouldn't El and Mike want to take their new material on tour?
Either way, expect more news on RTJ4 to surface in the coming weeks. Given that the pair have yet to miss, look for this one to be another major release for one of hip-hop's most unexpected yet deniably harmonious bromances.
