Shot just prior to COVID-19 gaining prominence, this Run The Jewels music video for the new single “Ooh LA LA” (from the new album RTJ4) was already a commentary on class divisions and greed, themes which have now been painfully revealed as more urgent and important to address than ever. Featuring cameos by hip hop legends Greg Nice, DJ Premier, Rage Against the Machine frontman Zack de la Rocha, a legion of dancers, a fleet of hot air balloons, and a mountain of burning money, the video is an ebullient celebration of resistance, illuminating the Run The Jewels duo’s (rapper/producer El-P and rapper Killer Mike) unique ability to straddle the worlds of pointed social commentary and raw, boisterous fun.  

Produced by SMUGGLER, the video was directed by Brian and Vanessa Beletic, the former of which previously directed the video for the group’s breakout hit “Legend Has It,” the gold-certified single from RTJ3 which made a big splash in the Super Bowl LI commercial for Marvel’s blockbuster film Black Panther. 

“We shot this ('Ooh LA LA) video only a few weeks before the pandemic hit with no clue as to what the future held. The fact that we got the chance to do it is damn near miraculous in hindsight,” shared El-P and Killer Mike in a joint statement. “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. 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 that 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.”

Credits

Production SMUGGLER Brian & Vanessa Beletic, directors; Sue Yeon Ahn, exec producer; Cat Restrepo, producer; Max Goldman, DP; Anthony Dimino, 1st AD; Justin Allen, production designer; Chris Cunningham, Steadicam; Natasha Newman-Thomas, costume designer; Marty Mc’Fresh, artist styling; Samo Soto, choreographer; Dustin Blackburn, casting; Jesse Tyler, DIT; Rich Breitengross, VTR; DaRico Jackson + Tiger, hair; Vanessa Kinder, makeup; Jesse Khalil Brown, helicopter pilot; Martine Coblentz, hot air balloon pilot. Editorial Work Editorial Biff Butler, editor; Gladys Bernadac, assistant editor; Rebecca Baker, producer; Marlo Baird, exec producer. VFX Creative The Mill Steve Cokonis, shoot supervisor/2D lead artist; Dan Warom, shoot supervisor/3D lead artist; Anastasia Von Rahl, exec producer; Sumer Zuberi, sr. producer; Michael Novo, production coordinator; Goutham H, line producer; Alex Candlish, Tim Rudgard, Phillip Ineno, Jeff Langlois, Romany Yavorsky Lenz Kol, Yukiko Ishiwata, Katerina Arroyo, Gavin Marler, Lisa Kim, Rakesh Venugopalan, Mangesh Borkar, Mayank Shekhar Tiwari, Rahul Roy, Rajeshkumar K, Srilakshmi Narasimha Kondepi, 2D artists; Freddy Parra, Lalida Karnjanasirirat, Stefan Kang, Graeme Turnbull, Michael Lori, Elizabeth Hammer, Danny Garcia, Umesh Namdev, Anirudh Sharma, Kiran Prabhu, 3D artists; Shannan Burkley, Vinod Shantaram More, Sandipan Majumder, Swarup Panigrahi, matte painting; Gustavo Gonzalez, Katie Yancey, animation; Tim Devlin, Anastasia Skerebneva, design; Kevin Diaz, art department. VFX Parliament Phil Crowe, VFX consultant. Color The Mill Matthew Osborne, colorist; Blake Rice, color producer; Logan Highlen, Gemma Parr, color assist. Emerging Tech Isiah Den Beste, mocap operator. Opening Titles Nick Gazin Audio Lime Studios Matt Miller, mixer; Susie Boyajan, exec producer. 

MySHOOT Profiles