There's no doubt that Run The Jewels has one of the best live shows around. Last night, they performed what's probably the most emotionally raw song from their 2020 album RTJ4, "A Few Words for the Firing Squad," on The Late Show.
Mike raps about losing his mother ("When my mother transitioned to another plane, I was sitting on a plane/Tellin' her to hold on, and she tried hard, but she just couldn't hang") and his temptations to numb the pain as the result of her loss ("Been two years, truth is I'll probably never be the same/Dead serious, it's a chore not to let myself go insane/It's crippling, make you wanna lean on a cup of promethazine/But my queen say she need a king, not another junkie, flunky rapper fiend.")
Meanwhile El-P, who produced the steadily rising beat that reaches for a crescendo that doesn't come until the end as a sax wails int he background, reaches out to his sister: "This is for my sister, Sarah, honey I'm so sorry you were hurt."
Earlier this month, the group launched BaRTJ, an online delivery service for beer, spirits, and merch, which will be available in 45 states. They also recently showed up on DJ Premier's latest effort, Hip Hop 50: The Soundtrack, with their track "Terrible 2's" and are featured on Black Thought and Danger Mouse's latest single, "Strangers" from their upcoming album Cheat Codes. This summer, Mike additionally dropped a new track,"Run"— his first solo release in more than a decade.
Currently, RTJ is on tour with Rage Against the Machine before they head overseas for a European run that kicks off on Aug. 24.
Watch them on Colbert above.