Photo by Prince Williams/Wireimage
Run The Jewels‘ new album, RTJ4, arrived amidst a massive new wave of protests sparked by the death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department. Some of the project’s lyrics sound like a direct commentary on current events.
On “walking in the snow,” Killer Mike raps the words “I can’t breathe,” which were Floyd’s last words caught on video before he died:
And every day on evening news they feed you fear for free
And you so numb you watch the cops choke out a man like me
And ‘til my voice goes from a shriek to whisper, “I can’t breathe”
And you sit there in the house on couch and watch it on TV
The most you give’s a Twitter rant and call it a tragedy
But truly the travesty, you’ve been robbed of your empathy
Despite the timely nature of the lyrics, both Killer Mike and El-P confirmed that the song was written in 2019:
“I can’t breathe” were also the last words from Eric Garner, a Black Staten Island man who died in 2014 after police placed him in a chokehold while arresting him. Prosecutors declined to press charges on the officers involved, but the NYPD paid a $5.9 million settlement to Garner’s family, and one officer was fired over five years later.
“I can’t breathe” became a rallying cry during police brutality demonstrations in the days after Garner’s death, and continue to appear on signs and in chants to this day. Floyd’s death, where he grimly uttered the same words, demonstrates how little has changed since then.
Killer Mike and El-P are offering RTJ4 for free on their website, alongside an optional donation to the Mass Defense Program. As of Thursday, fans had raised over $100,000 for the organization.
Listen to the song above and read all the lyrics to Run the Jewels' “walking in the snow” on Genius now.
