Zack De La Rocha – “Digging For Windows” (Prod. El-P)

Zack De La Rocha – “Digging For Windows” (Prod. El-P)

Around the time Rage Against The Machine first broke up in 2000, frontman Zack De La Rocha went to work on a solo album, recording tracks with a number of heavyweight, cutting-edge rap producers. One of those producers was El-P, then of the group Company Flow. De La Rocha never released that album, and he’s been fairly reclusive in recent years — staying away, for instance, from the RATM quasi-reunion Prophets Of Rage, despite public invitations to join in. But he’s stayed close with El, rapping alongside El and Killer Mike on Run The Jewels’ 2014 single “Close Your Eyes (And Count To Fuck)” and appearing as a surprise guest with RTJ at a number of live shows. Today, he’s teamed up with El-P again. And this time, it’s for his first solo song in over a decade.

“Digging For Windows” is a monster, a pounding skronk-rap attack with the sort of brain-shattering evolutionary Bomb Squad production that El-P has been bringing to Run The Jewels. The track features guitars from Chavez frontman Matt Sweeney and drums big enough to, at the right volumes, reduce your ribcage to atoms. De La Rocha in in absolutely fearsome brick-thrower mode on the track, which just went out into the world as a free BitTorrent download. Check it out below.

Download the track for free here and check out the lyrics below. El-P confirms it comes from a De La Rocha solo album coming next year.

LYRICS:

fuck that bright shit
the spot or the flashlights
we in la ducking both
in the shadows with lead pipes
the days are all night

see if i pay edison
no medicine
these blues ain’t more better when
my fever rise in the jungle
as quick as the price spikes
the days are all night

my future snapped like a rubber band
off my fold on a hand to hand
he drew from his waist
i put two in his roof
and i can still hear his screams
all night

now they ride their portfolios
like rodeos
rise every time my cherry glows
on the end of my cig as
the smoke blows through the bars
and the co’s laugh fades
as he strolls away
says i gotta pay
off that roll away
or its fuck your visitation days
and i pop off so in solitaire
i dream of offing these fred astaires
and the skin off my fingers tear
we digging for windows here
where the days are all night

this city’s a trap my partner
under the lights of they choppers
bodies tools for they coffers
not worth the cost of our coffins
i stare at a future so toxic
no trust in the dust of a promise
won’t mark the name on a ballot
so they can be free to devour our options
and just like you I’m a target
ill defined by the guap in my pocket
but the stage make figures
as quick as it off em
what marley and pac get?
i put these caps in capitals
leave minds blazed in they capitols
i step with a fury so actual fact
that my offense could be capital

we digging for windows here

UPDATE: The song is now a free download.

more from New Music