Killer Mike and El-P will release their second record as Run the Jewels, descriptively titled RTJ2, on October 28th. The album features numerous guests, including Rage Against the Machine mouthpiece Zack de la Rocha and Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker, among others yet to be announced, and will be available on CD, LP and digital release alongside a free download.
The duo has heralded the record with a new single, "Blockbuster Night Part 1," which pulls no punches in the opening verse, where Killer Mike raps, "Last album voodoo/ Proved that we was fucking brutal/ I'm talking crazy, half-past the clock is cuckoo," over a trudging, bassy beat.
Before the group puts out the new album via Mass Appeal Records, which Killer Mike declared "the best rap group album since RTJ1!" in a statement, it will release another new song via Adult Swim's Singles Series on September 15th.
Outside of Run the Jewels, Killer Mike has been voicing his feelings about the murder of Michael Brown, an unarmed teenager whom Ferguson, Missouri police shot dead earlier this month. Previously, he posted an Instagram of Brown's grieving parents and accompanied it with a powerful essay explaining how it affected him.
Mike recently appeared on CNN, posted in two parts, to discuss in greater detail why Brown's death has struck such a chord with Americans. "This seems very gratuitous," Mike said. "There is no gun found on the child. If there are no burns or gunpowder, it says they weren't in close proximity.... The consciousness of this country does not agree with this shooting. I don't think it agreed with Sean Bell. I don't think it agreed with Amadou Diallo. I don't think it agreed with [Eric] Garner. I don't think it agreed, but I think that this is a child.
"This was a college-bound child. This was a child that had done childish stuff. Children shoplift. Children act like gangsters and robbers. Children do stupid stuff. But no one could go to bed the night of finding out about this young man's murder comfortable that a child had been shot up to or more than six times in a defensive position."
