Run The Jewels

Watch It

Run The Jewels "Close Your Eyes (And Count To F**k)" (AG Rojas, dir.)

Don't call it a comeback, but "Close Your Eyes (And Count To F**k)" marks the music video return of two of my faves: director AG Rojas and Rage Against The Machine frontman Zack De La Rocha. And it's one motherf**k of a return, presenting an epic and exhausting brawl between Cop and Kid that might not detonate on-screen, but could prove explosive as a nationwide conversation about police brutality rages on.

AG Rojas, director: "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."