Worst theme park ride EVER.
Killer Mike and El-P, better known as Run The Jewels, generally like to include some kind of political and social commentary in their art, even if their trigger discipline is pretty bad. The video for “Don’t Get Captured,” off their latest LP, Run The Jewels 3, is no exception.
Incorporating claymation figures of the duo, “Don’t Get Captured” imagines a theme park ride akin to Pirates Of The Caribbean or The Haunted Mansion at Disneyland, but flips it on its ear. Rather than amusing tableaus of rollicking pirates or gallivanting ghosts, the ride car passes frightening images of the ills of capitalism. It’s a different type of ride than the one in Baby Driver, the soundtrack to which contains yet another scathing RTJ track, but it’s no less heart-racing.
Gentrification is depicted as a nightmarish scenario that leads to violent policing and unfair sentencing. Mass incarceration leads to forced labor, and the need to keep the machine chugging along incites the rich — depicted here as emaciated, insatiable skeletons — to imperialistically carve up the world for plunder.
It’s chilling stuff, but no less than expected from master agitators Run The Jewels. Just don’t expect me to visit their theme park any time soon.
