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Run the Jewels' new music video is a senseless battle between a white cop and an unarmed black man

Run the Jewels' new music video is a senseless battle between a white cop and an unarmed black man

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Killer Mike, of Run the Jewels, has been a powerful and outspoken voice on the subject of police violence over the last year, particularly as protests grew in Ferguson. His music is filled with these same discussions, and now his group's latest music video is taking it straight on, too. From director A.G. Rojas, the video for "Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck)" depicts one long — and seemingly endless — battle between a white cop and an unarmed black man. When the video opens, it's clear that the two have been fighting for some time. They're both depicted as tired and human, and when the video ends, it leaves viewers with one question: is this the time they finally stop?

"Our goal was to highlight the futility of the violence, not celebrate it."

Rojas speaks to this in a statement on the video, reprinted at Pitchfork. "It's provocative, and we all knew this, so we were tasked with making something that expressed the intensity of senseless violence without eclipsing our humanity," he says of the song and the concept for its video. "... Our goal was to highlight the futility of the violence, not celebrate it."

Below is a speech Killer Mike made at a show in November after learning that a St. Louis County grand jury had decided not to indict the officer who fatally shot Michael Brown. Killer Mike has spoken on police violence quite a bit, including on a number of news programs, but the emotional moment captured during this concert is one of his most powerful and raw takes on police violence and equality.