'RTJ4'...MIC Drop
- Tucker Cargile
- Jun 4, 2020
- 3 min read
Review: 8.9/10
When we desperately needed empowering music, the prolific alternative hip-hop duo Run The Jewels released their highly anticipated RTJ4. It is the follow-up project to Run the Jewels 3, which was released back in 2016 and garnered critical-acclamation. Before the release of RTJ4, Michael “Killer Mike” Render who has been a longtime social activist, gave an emotional speech telling protesters that they need to fortify their communities, and must “plot, plan, strategize, organize and mobilize” against the enemy. Killer Mike and EL-P have always been all about the people, so they decided to drop the album a few days early, giving us sharp and poignant verses that will push you to reflect on systemic racism and the current state of this country.
Now, I could definitely get all preachy and analyze this album through a social activist lens but I am not going to do that. Instead, I am going to give you my favorite verses on this album that shook me to my core and made me realize that EVERYONE should listen to this release RIGHT NOW. The verses will speak for themselves:
Track 01: Yankee and the brave (ep. 4)
“I got one round left, a hunnid cops outside
I could shoot at them or put one between my eyes
Chose the latter, it don't matter, it ain't suicide
And if the news say it was that's a goddamn lie
I can't let the pigs kill me, I got too much pride
And I meant it when I said it, never take me alive”
Track 05: goonies vs. E.T.
“Now I understand that woke folk be playin'
Ain't no revolution that's televised and digitized
You've been hypnotized and Twitter-ized by silly guys
Cues to the evenin' news, make sure you ill-advised
Got you celebratin' the generators of genocide
Any good deed is pummeled, punished and penalized
Rulers of the world will slice it up like a dinner pie
Race in a nation told you to identify
People take false pride and warfare incentivized
Fuck that, me and my tribe we on an iller vibe
We accept the role of the villains 'cause we been villainized
Stomped to the dirt of the Earth, we still will arise
In the terror dome, let me alone as I soliloquize”
Track 06: walking in the snow (with Gangsta Boo)
“The way I see it, you're probably freest from the ages one to four
Around the age of five you're shipped away for your body to be stored
They promise education, but really they give you tests and scores
And they predictin' prison population by who scoring the lowest
And usually the lowest scores the poorest and they look like me
And every day on evening news they feed you fear for free
And you so numb you watch the cops choke out a man like me
And 'til my voice goes from a shriek to whisper, "I can't breathe"
And you sit there in the house on couch and watch it on TV
The most you give's a Twitter rant and call it a tragedy”
Track 07: JU$T (feat. Pharrell Williams & Zack de la Rocha)
“Master of these politics, you swear that you got options (Slave, yeah)
Master of opinion 'cause you vote with the white collar (Slave)
The Thirteenth Amendment says that slavery's abolished (Shit)
Look at all these slave masters posin' on yo' dollar (Get it)”
Track 11: a few words for the firing squad (radiation)
“You ever notice that the worst of us have all the chips?
It really kinda takes the sheen off people getting rich
Like maybe rich is not the holy ever lovin' king of nothin' fuckers
Know we know you’re bluffin'
You are dealing with the motherfuckin' money-money runners”
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