Releasing his first solo work in over 10 years, Atlanta based rapper Killer Mike drops the incendiary new single “RUN” featuring a stirring opening monologue from Dave Chapelle, a verse from Young Thug and an iconic production by NO I.D. The new track and accompanying music video addresses America’s past to include Black history as a part of the nation’s history, challenging the American psyche to better and more wholly reflect the Black experience.
Heavy, hypnotic and with powerful and direct lyrics, “RUN” comes in like a freight train, delivering feelings of frustration and anger, but also a determination to set things right and a spirit that refuses to bend to unjust human laws and actions.
Portraying the fight for freedom in a captivating, visceral context, the music video shows prominent Black figures in American history before dovetailing into a heated battle scene between two armed forces. Directed by Adrian Villagomez, “RUN” represents a just cause rising up against tyrannical forces — Black people and allied people up in arms together rising against the Nazi-esque secessionists who want to take the country back into the confederacy.
“I wanted to make a song that looked forward for my people instead of backward, one that celebrated us instead of dwelled on our pain,” notes Killer Mike. “When I wrote ‘The race to Freedom was never won’ I was speaking specifically to the Black experience, but in the last few weeks it’s becoming increasingly apparent that this rings truer now more than ever for EVERYONE. I lived with the song for months, and remembered a pep talk Dave Chappelle gave me so I asked him if he’d do something in the spirit of that for this song. What he sent back was something else… I wasn’t prepared for him to take one of the most romanticized events in World history and use it as an elegant metaphor for the Black experience in America.”
Killer Mike also notes that the song and music video are also heavily influenced by political fighting and rigid party lines being drawn among citizens.
“This video represents the warfare that is going on between Fox, CNN, MSNBC,” Killer Mike says in a BTS video for his new single and music video.. “It represents the warfare that is going on between those that are asleep and those that are awake. It represents, in really, really simple terms, those of us that are just, those of us who are hope-filled and hopeful.”
In addition to new music, Killer Mike will be going on a highly anticipated tour with Rage Against the Machine as as part of Run the Jewels, his hip hop duo with EI-P. Unfortunately, there are no Southern California dates yet. Learn more about the tour here.
For more on Killer Mike, make sure to visit his website and follow him on Instagram and Twitter.
Words: Patti Sanchez
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