Country : United States Label : BMG / Jewel Runners / RBC Genres and styles : Hip Hop / Rock / Synth-Punk Year : 2020

RTJ4

· by Alain Brunet

With the release of this fourth studio album, the famous rap duo Run the Jewels immediately became iconic players in the hip hop response to the police abuses we see in the USA once again, another time too many. In Minneapolis last week, the events surrounding the murder of George Floyd by a police officer with the passive complicity of his colleagues precipitated the release of this much-anticipated album.

The free download of RTJ4 is accompanied by an appeal to donate to Black rights organizations, starting with Black Lives Matter and the National Lawyers Guild. The black-and-white alliance symbolized by the rapper Killer Mike and the beatmaker-rapper El-P is ideal in this context of societal conflagration, which is a clear sign of the ever-present racial inequalities in North America .

True to itself, the tandem doesn’t play coy, they lay on the invectives and calls to challenge the established order. Thus, the virulent lyrics of Killer Mike and El-P are of the same order as those put in rhyme on RJT’s previous albums, entirely relevant in the context of the demonstrations in Ferguson and the 2016 presidential election. Galvanized by the situation, our comrades are putting on their hats as militants and full-on leftists – we know of Killer Mike’s support for Bernie Sanders and his inelegant, confusingly sexist rejection of Hillary Clinton four years ago during the Democratic leadership campaign.

The beats and sounds are inspired as much by the old school of rap as they are by synth-punk, not without reminding us of Atari Teenage Riot, saxophones blare furiously, warlike melodies are sung, a child screams motherfucker, riffs from Gang of Four are quoted. “Classic” artists from Black culture and also from rock are invited to raise their voices: veterans Greg Nice and DJ Premier, the septuagenarian Mavis Staples (whose late father’s whole family was once closely associated with the fight for civil rights), the singer Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age, the Black pop hitmaker Pharrell Williams, and the militant tribune Zach de la Rocha, more than ever enraged against the machine.

The words are incendiary, the sound is incendiary, this is the ideal framework to accompany all the demonstrations in progress and to power opposition to police repression, to systemic poverty within the world’s biggest economic power, against capitalism that has gone feral again. This shit hits hard.

Latest 360 Content

FIJM | Anomalie and Lettieri: A New Musical Friendship, Developing in Real Time

FIJM | Anomalie and Lettieri: A New Musical Friendship, Developing in Real Time

FIJM | Linda May Han Oh, A Role Model for Female Double-Bass Players

FIJM | Linda May Han Oh, A Role Model for Female Double-Bass Players

Nuits d’Afrique | La Chiva Gantiva As Seen by Rafael Espinel

Nuits d’Afrique | La Chiva Gantiva As Seen by Rafael Espinel

Suoni | The Spiritual Quest, The End in Transcendence

Suoni | The Spiritual Quest, The End in Transcendence

FIJM | Thundercat, A Feline on The Loose

FIJM | Thundercat, A Feline on The Loose

FIJM | Bill Frisell, Thomas Morgan and Rudy Royston Exposed

FIJM | Bill Frisell, Thomas Morgan and Rudy Royston Exposed

FIJM | Branford Marsalis Among Four MF’s Playin’ Tunes… Live!

FIJM | Branford Marsalis Among Four MF’s Playin’ Tunes… Live!

FIJM | About Derrick Hodge’s Idea of the Color of Noize

FIJM | About Derrick Hodge’s Idea of the Color of Noize

FIJM | Queen of Afrobeats, Ayra confirms her status as a Global… Starr

FIJM | Queen of Afrobeats, Ayra confirms her status as a Global… Starr

FIJM | Black Jazz by Marquis Hill

FIJM | Black Jazz by Marquis Hill

Festival de Lanaudière | Leonardo Garcia Alarcon/Monteverdi’s Coronation of Poppea: being marketwise

Festival de Lanaudière | Leonardo Garcia Alarcon/Monteverdi’s Coronation of Poppea: being marketwise

FIJM | Nate Smith and his Supremely Talented Quartet

FIJM | Nate Smith and his Supremely Talented Quartet

Nuits d’Afrique 2025 | Tyrane Mondeny Presents Her Mandingo Soul

Nuits d’Afrique 2025 | Tyrane Mondeny Presents Her Mandingo Soul

FIJM | Nai Palm? Creature of Exception! Hawa B? Future Star!

FIJM | Nai Palm? Creature of Exception! Hawa B? Future Star!

FIJM 2025 | Funky funky, Trombone Shorty

FIJM 2025 | Funky funky, Trombone Shorty

FIJM | Nubya Garcia Becomes a Star in MTL

FIJM | Nubya Garcia Becomes a Star in MTL

FIJM 2025 | Symphonic Avishai Cohen: Bewitching magic

FIJM 2025 | Symphonic Avishai Cohen: Bewitching magic

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Phantom Island

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Phantom Island

Common Holly – Anything glass

Common Holly – Anything glass

FIJM I Hanorah Sets the TD Stage Ablaze with Soulful R&B

FIJM I Hanorah Sets the TD Stage Ablaze with Soulful R&B

FIJM | Jeff Goldblum: Storyteller, Comedian and Pianist

FIJM | Jeff Goldblum: Storyteller, Comedian and Pianist

FIJM I Still Taking Us There, Mavis Staples Electrifies Montreal JazzFest

FIJM I Still Taking Us There, Mavis Staples Electrifies Montreal JazzFest

FIJM | Gabriella Olivo, Musical Journey in Three Languages

FIJM | Gabriella Olivo, Musical Journey in Three Languages

FIJM | Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp – Ventre Unique

FIJM | Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp – Ventre Unique

Subscribe to our newsletter