“One day the long fought battle between humanity and the forces of greed and division will end, and on that day, finally free, we will throw a motherfucking party,” so promises the “ancient proverb” at the beginning of Run The Jewels’ latest video for “Ooh LA LA” featuring Greg Nice and DJ Premier.
Directed by Brian and Vanessa Beletic, the visual starts with a massive crowd filling the streets of New York City, cans of “Ooh LA LA” beer in their hands, money blowing all over the ground and a cameo from Rage Against The Machine’s Zack de la Rocha.
As Killer Miler and El-P spit their verses, the crowd lights a giant pile of money on fire while pure anarchy ensues.
“We shot this video only a few weeks before the pandemic hit with no clue as to what the future held,” RTJ says in a press release. “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.
Run The Jewels Recruit Greg Nice & DJ Premier For ‘Ooh LA LA’ Single
“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 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. It’s a dream of humanity’s V-DAY… and the party we know would pop off.”
“Ooh LA LA” comes from the highly anticipated Run The Jewels 4, which is expected to arrive in the very near future.
In the wake of COVID-19, RTJ has been sharing weekly free downloadable activity and coloring books the RTJ website. Last week, the motley duo released an exclusive new line of t-shirts as a fundraiser for their tour crew, who are out of work until RTJ’s postponed world tour with Rage Against the Machine gets underway.
Until then, watch “Ooh LA LA” above.