- In the summer of 1981, as riots exploded across England, The Specials released their eerie take on urban violence, Ghost Town. The single raced to number one like flames from a molotov cocktail, and the moment went down in history as the most famous example of astute commentary combining with fortuitous timing to make pop music fit for the times.
Almost four decades later, history may be repeating as riots spread across the US in response to yet another black man killed by police. And to soundtrack it, political hip hop superstars Run The Jewels this week release their fourth self-titled album.
The duo certainly seems to feel the album is relevant for the present moment. "I don’t have shit left to say right now that me and my brother Killer Mike don’t express on this album" said producer and rapper El-P this week. In the same statement he announced the album would be made available free for all to download.
The record starts with a machine-gun like blast of repetitive snare and lyrics about a shootout with cops. The video for single Ooh La La features a humorously simulated riot with people taking the streets to dance and burn piles of money. But it's the song Walking In The Snow that really feels like the song for the moment - “And you so numb you watch the cops choke out a man like me / Till my voice goes from a shriek to whisper, ‘I can’t breathe’ / And you sit there in the house on the couch and watch it on TV / The most you give’s a Twitter rant and call it a tragedy.”. As Donald Trump bizarrely poses in front of a church bible in hand, Killer Mike raps "Never forget in the story of Jesus the hero was killed by the state".
It's not the first time uncanny timing has thrust Run The Jewels into the limelight. The duo's rise to mainstream fame was helped by the night in 2014 they played a gig in St Louis hours after charges were dropped against Darren Wilson, the police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown in that city. Killer Mike's emotional speech that night became a viral internet video.
You could say that Run The Jewels have been the beneficiaries of fortuitous if terrible coincidences. But that's not quite it. Because while the issue of racism may only occasionally be something that appears on our news bulletins, by its very nature it's never something that can be turned up or down by those on its receiving end. Like the black man who can never be sure which routine police check could turn into a life-threatening situation; a black artist being true to their experience inevitably confronts issues of systemic racism - it's only when the eyes of the white media and audience are alerted to this everyday reality that we think it has a particular relevance.
Walking In The Snow is likely to get a lot of play over the next few weeks alongside footage of George Floyd being suffocated by police officer Derek Chauvin, or of streets crowded with protesters and martial law style policing. But while a riot is a momentary conflagration of anger and injustice, Killer Mike and El-P are both in their mid-forties and in their second and third decade respectively of making conscious hip hop. This album was not made in response to the riots of 2020. It's an album of anger yes, but also humour, sadness and analysis. In other words, it's a record less concerned with how to burn down a city than how to build a life and society.
The guests on the album show connection to past struggles and a wide lens view of social change. Zach De La Rocha of Rage Against The Machine delivers a great verse on the track JU$T; his band's album The Battle of Los Angeles hit number one in the charts the week before activists fought police and shut down the World Trade Organization summit in the streets of Seattle back in 1999.
A couple of tracks later appears Mavis Staples - someone who as a young woman sang at civil rights marches alongside Martin Luther King. To hear Mavis' famous contralto singing "There is a grenade in my heart and the pin is in their palm" is the emotional climax of the album, and the song takes a spiritual view of the eternal struggle for justice. This is a song not for the barricades, but for the post-riot cleanup as the adrenaline wears off and you walk home through the rubble wondering what now.
It came as a shock to many that this week, as black Americans fought cops in the streets like a gangsta rap track come to life, the most high profile political rapper in the country - a man who has advocated gun ownership for all black Americans - was urging moderation. Killer Mike gave another viral speech; telling people to vote, fill in the census and to "sit in your homes tonight instead of burning your home to the ground... to properly plot, plan, strategize, and organize."
Run The Jewels 4 may seem like an album made for our present moment. But Killer Mike and El-P know that great art, like social change, is not about one heightened moment of passion but the long term effects. This might be the perfect political album for 2020, but to judge clearly we may have to wait for the rage and teargas to clear.
- Andy Paine.