Run the Jewels "Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck)": El-P and Killer Mike record with Zack de la Rocha (AUDIO).

Run the Jewels’ New Song Features a Rare Appearance From Zack de la Rocha

Run the Jewels’ New Song Features a Rare Appearance From Zack de la Rocha

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Slate's Culture Blog
Oct. 13 2014 5:58 PM

Run the Jewels’ New Song Features a Rare Appearance From Zack de la Rocha

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Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Ever since Zack de la Rocha cut ties with Rage Against the Machine in 2000, the former frontman has—save for a handful of shows with the band between 2007 and 2011—kept a pretty low profile. He reportedly scrapped a long-planned solo album as well as an album’s worth of songs that he recorded with Trent Reznor. Aside from 2008’s One Day as a Lion EP with The Mars Volta’s Jon Theodore, he’s appeared on only two other tracks, including last year’s Deltron 3030 collaboration “Melding of the Minds.”

So it came as a surprise when, earlier this year, El-P teased a photo on Instagram of de la Rocha in the studio with a caption that implied he’d make an appearance on Run the Jewel’s sophomore album. Today, via BuzzFeed, we get the first listen at what the trio cooked up, “Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck).”

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Given his previous work, it makes sense that de la Rocha would join the rap duo for a song that evokes the blistering anti-cop ethos of N.W.A.’s “Fuck Tha Police.” At one point, Killer Mike asks the feuding Bloods and Crips, “When you niggas gon’ unite and kill the police, motherfuckers?” But the song’s most quotable moment comes from de la Rocha’s closing verse, when he says they’re “Done dyin’, Phillip A.K. Dickin’ you.” Run the Jewels 2 is out Oct. 28.

Dee Lockett is a writer for Vulture and a former Slate editorial assistant.