We were supposed to have RTJ4 by now. It was not to be. Run The Jewels, the brick-throwing duo of Killer Mike and El-P, are still sitting on their fourth album, which they’d promised before Coachella and their summer tour with Rage Against The Machine. Since neither of those things is happening on schedule, we don’t get to hear the album yet. But last month, the group dropped two new singles, “The Yankee And The Brave (ep. 4)” and “Ooh LA LA.” Both whip ass. Today, we get a video for the latter.

Run The Jewels recorded the new video with directors Brian and Vanessa Beletic just before the current pandemic made music-video shoots like this impossible, and it feels even more poignant now. In the clip, RTJ and friends stage a massive party on Wall Street, where they set massive piles of cash on fire and stage a massive line-dance in the middle of it all. It’s a joyous vision of a post-capitalist past, a beautiful fantasy.

Nice & Smooth’s Greg Nice, whose verse from Gang Starr’s “DWYCK” is sampled on “Ooh LA LA,” shows up in the video, and so does rap legend DJ Premier, who scratches on it. Rage Against The Machine’s Zack De La Rocha, a past RTJ collaborator, hangs out in the background. El-P wears a purple smoking jacket and a bright pink beanie. Killer Mike wears a vintage Hilfiger and an Unknown Pleasures shirt. Recently-freed prisoners Crip-walk. Helicopters and hot-air balloons hover in the sky. It’s that good shit. Watch it below.

In a statement, RTJ say:

we shot this video only a few weeks before the pandemic hit with no clue as to what the future held. the fact that we got the chance to do it is damn near miraculous in hindsight.

in conceptualizing the video with our friends Brian and Vanessa Beletic we imagined the world on the day that the age old struggle of class was finally over. a day that humanity, empathy and community were victorious over the forces that would separate us based on arbitrary systems created by man.

this video is a fantasy of waking up on a day that there is no monetary system, no dividing line, no false construct to tell our fellow man that they are less or more than anyone else. not that people are without but that the whole meaning of money has vanished. that we have somehow solved our self created caste system and can now start fresh with love, hope and celebration. its a dream of humanity’s V-DAY… and the party we know would pop off.

love, RTJ

ps: we’d like to thank everyone who busted their ass to make this happen from directors Brian and Vanessa Beletic to line producer Cat Restrepo to editor Biff Butler to the wonderful folks at The Mill who handled post production as well as everyone involved in shooting, prepping and executing this video. you guys gave us so much of your energy and talent during this crazy fucking time to make it all come together and we are truly grateful.

We still don’t know when RTJ4 is coming out, but this video and the dramatic “Ooh LA LA” needledrop in the new season of Ozark should be enough to hold us over for now.