Vid Kids 2015 #6: Run The Jewels featuring Zack de la Rocha "Close Your Eyes (And Count To Fuck)"

MTV once created a simpler gateway for young filmmakers to generate name-recognition in a way that doesn't seem to be catching quite as easily in the Youtube/Vimeo era. The 2010s doesn't really have any big "pop video director" names like Jonas Akerlund, F. Gary Gray, Mark Romanek or Hype Williams. Although, if this decade had one of those names, it would be AG Rojas. For us, his video for "Earl" by Earl Sweatshirt was like the 2010s version of Sam Bayer's "Teen Spirit" video, hitting at just the perfect time when the world of music and pop videos desperately needed the excitement that Odd Future happily provided.

Just the same, the state of the world at the beginning of 2015 needed a strong reaction. And it had been a very long time since world events properly aligned with a cultural movement that didn't feel self-serving or grossly heavy-handed. For example, 9/11, the invasion of Iraq and Hurricane Katrina were expected to coincide with strong cultural movements that never really happened. Reactions to those moments throughout the world of music frequently appeared very self-serving. U2 was somehow present for all of them. Sam Bayer - 14 years after "Teen Spirit" - reacted to Iraq with possibly the worst video of the 2000-2009 decade, Green Day's "Wake Me When September Ends."

2015. We're finally experiencing a cultural movement that can produce a video like THIS, equally moving and appropriately poignant. We don't wanna blow our load too soon before Hot Mix, so we'll cool down our reaction to the world at large. But yea, "Close Your Eyes" is one of the strongest reactions to this era from any medium.

"CLOSE YOUR EYES" | Run The Jewels from AG Rojas on Vimeo.