A lot of 2016 releases have been underpinned by a sense of profound dread, of something terrible slouching its way into reality. The cosmic horror alluded to in David Bowie’s Blackstar, the inner horror of Danny Brown’s Atrocity Exhibition. Fatima Al Qadari`s riot porn, ANOHNI`s bleak portrait of environmental collapse Gaika’s paranoia, the witch burnings and mob violence on the last Radiohead album. It’s hardly surprising-the world is faced with multiple economic and ecological crises, and culture reflects the feeling that time is running out. Alongside this has been the resurgence of xenophobic and racist political movements, as the fearful and resentful vote to preserve their cherished borders of hate. France may have an openly Fascist prime minister by this time next year, as may Austria, the birthplace of Adolf Hitler……
Last week, this appeared to reach its current nadir with an orange reality TV bigot and sexual abuser becoming the most powerful politician in the world. Even more sinister than Trump are the cadre of deranged, far right lunatics who surround him. The dead-eyed religious fanatic Mike Pence. His white supremacist advisor Steve Bannon. Trump’s victory has empowered other Fascists the world over, and he hasn’t even begun to rule yet. But as sinister as this all is, it’s not as if the US has become the Trumpenreich overnight. Trump did not so much win the election, as Clinton lost it. By running Hilary Clinton, a compromised and unappealing center-right candidate, the Democratic Party failed to capitalize on popular support for progressive change, with many potential voters simply not even casting ballots. Hilary Clinton is an exemplar of the neoliberal ideology which has dominated the world for the last four decades, and which now appears to be on the verge of being superseded by the more overtly authoritarian populism represented by Trump and his vile cohorts . As Ajay Chaudhary and Raphaele Chappe recently noted, Trump will be inheriting an apparatus of detention and assassination that the likes of Clinton and Obama themselves helped to build up ` Anyone who takes seriously the threat of the newly empowered reactionary right, must take seriously the role neoliberalism has played in laying out the red carpet for its arrival. Instead of handwringing over liberal dead letters, we must come to terms with the fact that we have already been living in a form of deeply destructive authoritarian liberalism for nearly four decades now’.
Run The Jewels, the pairing of Killer Mike and El-P, have been one of this decade’s most vivid chroniclers of authoritarian liberalism. Their first two albums (which came out in 2013 and 2014) map out a landscape of income inequality, arbitrary police killings, survivalist economies and drone surveillance. This might almost be too bleak if they didn’t combine their dark worldview with colour, humor and swagger. RTJ are an ebullient middle finger aimed at the dystopia of everyday life. They were also vocal supporters of Bernie Sander’s campaign for president, which offered a platform of democratic socialism as an alternative to both Trump’s deranged fearmongering and Clinton’s robotic cynicism. With anticipation for their immanent third album already high, they responded to the election news by dropping `2100’. This songs take a more meditative approach then their earlier work. Straight off the bat, Killer Mike offers ` how long do the hate that we hold lead us to another Holocaust’. The mournful production evaporates, rather than explodes. But there is a hopeful subtext, with lyrics that praise both human solidarity and revolution ` I don’t study war no more, I don’t hate the poor no more, getting more aint what’s more’. It’s this message of a future worth living which resonates in such horrifying times. It is the same insurgent spirt which is animating the Americans who have been protesting en masse and organizing walk-outs for the last week- Fuck Donald Trump.