Dyalekt’s “Rule The World” video calls for sanity

As a collective, Denver’s Diamond Boiz have been one of the driving forces in Denver hip-hop in recent years, and now the trio’s ready to show they’re just as viable as solo artists. With solo releases from Zone, Za, and Dyalekt digitally released in the past three consecutive weeks, the Boiz come together Saturday, Nov. 27 at Kaliente to mark the physical release of all three albums. To help spearhead the show and emphasize that the trio isn’t getting frivolous with solo material, Dyalekt unveiled a lyric video for “Rule The World,” off his November Hates Me, that tackles everything from military brutality to child abuse in four and a half minutes. Dyalekt—a.k.a. Justin Romero—spoke with A.V. Club about the track and its call for us to return to sanity.

A.V. Club: “Rule The World” was a very socially aware track while remaining pretty nonpartisan. Was that your goal?

Dyalekt:  That’s just how my opinion works. I’m really opinionated as far as the world goes and politics and things that happen, but I’m also not very extreme. My opinion comes from all sides of any view. Whatever topic it is, I’ve looked at all sides of it before. I’ve just tried to take the most logical stance. There’s a million things wrong, but if there’s a kid who gets shot by soldiers, then we’re doing something wrong. That’s what the song was really about, all these things that I feel like are really wrong with the world, but I feel like nobody’s paying attention to them, or there’s always some kind of excuse. A lot of them don’t make sense. 

AVC: That common-sense approach seems particularly out of place following the partisan election season.

D: My thing about voting is I feel like Democrats and Republicans are like the Bloods and the Crips. They try to make you vote for one of the gangs. I’m upset that there was the 2008 election and over 30 people ran for president, but we only heard about two of them. That kind of thing upsets me. Hey, maybe Obama was the best one out of all of them, but who knows if you don’t know who the other 28 are? It doesn’t seem as likely. I’m just against things that don’t make sense, and that doesn’t make sense.

AVC: Why do you think common sense doesn’t seem to guide politics anymore?

D: A lot of it’s huge political posters and ads, and that’s a false image. They’ve tricked people into thinking that we’re in a recession, and health care is going to come, and all these things are going to come, and taxes aren’t going to be raised. They’re going to go down. Logically, that doesn’t make sense. I don’t know if people don’t understand what they’re actually voting for. I don’t know if some people know who they’re voting for or what they stand for. I hope with the “Rule The World” video, that someone opens their eyes and says, “I need to look into what Sarah Palin is actually saying, not that she has a cool show on TV coming out.”

AVC: So why do political advertising and sloganeering work so effectively?

D: People are lazy. It’s the same concept where in school, we would watch the movie instead of trying to read the book because we were too lazy. Then we’d fail and wonder why. It’s the same concept, but people don’t understand that it doesn’t work, so they’re still doing it. I think it’s just that people don’t research things themselves, and are just interested in what’s closest to them and whatever’s easiest. If their favorite song is telling them to go to the club, they don’t care about anything in politics, or global warming, or animal cruelty. It’s all about “How do I be more like Pitbull?” I don’t think it’s actually their fault. You can’t blame someone for being ignorant of something they’ve never had the opportunity to realize.