Run The Jewels release short film companion to Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck)

Hip-hop duo Run The Jewels have released an AG Rojas-directed short film based on Zach De La Rocha collaboration Close Your Eyes (And Count To Fuck).

The dark and violent short depicts a running battle between a white policeman, played by The Wolf of Wall Street’s Shea Whigham, and a black civilian portrayed by Keith Stanfield, recently seen in Martin Luther King biopic Selma.

Explaining the clip, Rojas said: “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.”

Killer Mike of Run The Jewels added: “This video represents the futile and exhausting existence of a purgatory-like law enforcement system. There is no neat solution at the end because there is no neat solution in the real world. However, there is an opportunity for dialogue and to change the way communities are policed in (the USA).”

Run The Jewels play the Field Day Festival in London in June, alongside Django Django and Patti Smith among others; Run The Jewels 2 is out now.