Politicians Throw Punches in DJ Shadow, Run the Jewels’ ‘Nobody Speak’ Video
“We wanted to make a positive, life-affirming video that captures politicians at their election-year best,” DJ Shadow said in a statement that accompanies the new visual for “Nobody Speak,” his collaboration with Killer Mike and El-P of Run the Jewels. “We got this instead.”
By “this,” Shadow means a full-tilt melee. The “Nobody Speak” clip opens peacefully enough, as two factions of politicians sit at a somber, official-looking hearing. But instead of going about their business in the usual bureaucratic fashion — arguing to the point of inaction — the testy leaders of each group rap increasingly combative lines at each other.
The situation escalates quickly, with the first punch thrown 90 seconds into the clip. The rest of the video is a scrum: pencils break, paper flies, chairs shatter. At the end, one of the leaders seems ready to impale another with the American flag.
Sam Pilling directed the clip, and the two political big-shots are played by Igor Tsyshkevych and Ian Bailey.”It’s such a dope video,” Killer Mike noted in a statement. “It’s what I really wish Trump and Hillary would just do and get it over with … And even in that fight I think Hillary would win — and that’s not an endorsement.”
“Nobody Speak” appeared in June on Shadow’s The Mountain Will Fall album.