Killer Mike and El-P, Run The Jewels to you, unite with Zack de la Rocha for “Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck)” in a police brutality fueled black and white visual.
With the onslaught of police brutality increasingly gaining attention in America, here’s a visual that highlights that struggle between a black man and a police officer in black and white.
“Close Your Eyes (And Count To F**k)” was directed by AG Rojas who says this of the powerful music 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, “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 also offers his take on this visual citing, “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.”
Watch “Close Your Eyes (And Count To Fuck)” below and prepare yourselvesto be mind fucked.
Catrise J is the owner of Vault of 1520 and Content Creator for Dirty Glove Bastard (DGB). Catrise is a self described “free-spirit” and always shares what’s on her mind. She enjoys Hip Hop, nature, reading, 420 and 90’s R&B. Her idols include Angie Martinez, Tupac, Oprah, and Warren Buffet. You can connect with Catrise on social media.
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