"Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck)" - Run The Jewels ft Zack de la Rocha [YouTube Official Video] | Zumic

Run The Jewels have released a video for their Zach de la Rocha-assisted cut, "Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck)," giving the politically-charged track some anxiety-inducing visuals.

The artists only make an appearance in the very beginning of the video, while the rest of it is dedicated to a wrestling match between a member of the LAPD and a black man. The fighters exert all of their energy on straggling and out-muscling the other. It's a 4:42 struggle as they pointlessly fight, demonstrating that violence between cops and citizens is pointless, tiring, and without a winner.

Director A.G. Rojas said of the video:

When Run The Jewels sent me this track, I knew we had the opportunity to create a film that means something. I felt a sense of responsibility to do just that. We had to exploit the lyrics and aggression and emotion of the track, and translate that into a film that would ignite a valuable and productive conversation about racially motivated violence in this country. 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. For me, it was important to write a story that didn’t paint a simplistic portrait of the characters of the Cop and Kid. They're not stereotypes. They're people - complex, real people and, as such, the power had to shift between them at certain points throughout the story. The film begins and it feels like they have been fighting for days, they’re exhausted, not a single punch is thrown, their violence is communicated through clumsy, raw emotion. They've already fought their way past their judgments and learned hatred toward one another. Our goal was to highlight the futility of the violence, not celebrate it.”

El-P adds that, “This is a vision of a seemingly never-ending struggle whose participants are pitted against each other by forces originating outside of themselves.”

Killer Mike expands by saying...

"This video represents the futile and exhausting existence of a purgatory-like law enforcement system. There is no neat solution at the end because there is no neat solution in the real world. However, there is an opportunity to dialogue and change the way communities are policed in this country. Salutes to AG Rojas for his unique take on the subject matter and to Shea and Keith for giving us their all and bringing it to life."

Run The Jewels 2 is available on Amazon (Vinyl, CD, MP3). You can also stream the album and read our review right here on Zumic.

For Run The Jewels music, news, and tour dates, check out their Zumic artist page.