Run the Jewels Share New Track Featuring Zack de la Rocha

Run the Jewels – (from left) Killer Mike and El-P. Photo: Windish Agency

Killer Mike and El-P of Run the Jewels will release their second album RTJ2 on October 27th, which means there are only two weeks left to donate money to their worthwhile Meow the Jewels Kickstarter campaign. This should help land some last-minute pledges: The duo have dropped what is no doubt one of the most anticipated tracks off their new LP, “Close Your Eyes (and Count to Fuck),” featuring Rage Against the Machine’s Zack de la Rocha.

“Close Your Eyes” loops a de la Rocha sample to construct its beat, and then the Rage rapper delivers a monster verse before the three-minute mark. “I’m Miles ahead of you, you can sip my Bitches Brew,” de la Rocha says on the track. While de la Rocha sporadically makes appearances on other hip-hop acts’ albums ”“ last year, he guested on Deltron 3030’s Event 2 ”“ the Rage Against the Machine vocalist hasn’t released any music of his own since One Day as a Lion, his one-off side project with the Mars Volta’s Jon Theodore, dropped a self-titled EP in 2008. However, a de la Rocha / El-P collaboration was more than a decade in the making.

“We worked on music together in the late ”˜90’s after Rage broke up but it never came out,” El-P told Buzzfeed. “We remained friends, though, and when I was in L.A. working on the record I bumped in to him literally on the way to the studio. He came by and listened to what we had and a day later was recording with us.”

RTJ2 will arrive October 27th as a free download at the duo’s official site. Run the Jewels also set up an iTunes preorder, with that digital release containing the exclusive track “Blockbuster Night Part 2,” the sequel to the similarly titled track from their debut. RTJ2 boasts guest spots from Travis Barker, Boots and Foxygen drummer Diane Coffee. El-P has promised to remix the entire RTJ2 LP using only cat sounds if the Kickstarter hits its $45,000 goal.