WVAU’s #4 Album of 2014: Run The Jewels – Run The Jewels 2

Richard Murphy

Courtesy of RTJ.

On their first record, Run The Jewels proclaimed that they were “the new Avengers,‰” a statement which was only half true. They‰’re gonna save the world, no doubt about it, but this isn‰’t a PG-13 summer funtime adventure. RTJ are the sonic equivalent of a hard-R action masterpiece with Batman’s sense of justice, Iron Man‰’s penchant for debauched behavior, and the bloodlust of The Punisher, and unlike most action flicks, this sequel improves on the original in every single way. Every great aspect of the original is here, but improved, deepened, and way more likely to destroy your sound system.

Run The Jewels 2 is hip hop set aflame, with El-P’s signature industrial-tinged beats sounding as if they‰’d just as soon soundtrack a singularity-induced robot takeover of society as they would a rap record. Within the destruction, however, is variety. The opener “Jeopardy‰” is a sulking, ominous, slow-paced burn of an introduction to the record that builds to a climax that will have you screaming along for the record to truly begin, just in time for “Oh My Darling Don‰’t Cry‰” to explode into wild aggression. 



Mid-record track “Early‰” contains a genuinely moving, incredibly memorable chorus sung by guest star Boots, and the four-minute sonic cannon that is “Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck)‰” contains one of hardest hitting, exhilarating beats of the century with a hook provided by none other than Rage Against the Machine’s Zach de la Rocha. Every single track contains masterful, layered production that, while chaotic and impenetrable on its face, is actually incredibly layered and detailed, lush in the way that it treats completely blown out, impossibly loud hip hop.

Killer Mike and El-P are at their lyrical peak on RTJ2. Mike‰’s booming voice commands attention with every bar he spits. Meanwhile El‰’s paranoid yet disturbingly grounded vision of modern day dystopia is twisted into rhymes with lyricism as complex as that of any rapper alive. Much has been made of the violent braggadocio of Run The Jewels, and for good reason. The duo delivers violent, unrelenting lines with simply absurd and comic amounts of exaggeration (“Top of the mornin‰’ / My fist to your face is fucking folgers,‰” “I‰’ll tea bag a piranha tank, heart barely beating‰Û). 



However, Killer Mike and El-P are nothing if not realists, and know that they can‰’t only make battle rap without delivering scathing critiques of society. Gender roles are destroyed with Gangsta Boo‰’s verse on “Love Again,‰” as well as by El-P on “Angel Duster‰” (“You want a whore in a white dress / I want a wife in a thong‰Û). Modern day police brutality and racism is confronted in “Early,‰” with anger and sadness being mixed by Killer Mike‰’s detailed, depressing description of his fear of being arrested in front of his family for no fault of his own. The consequences of drug dealing are viewed on a personal, self-deprecating level on “Crown,‰” where the duo describe the real life horror they‰’ve witnessed and feel responsible for.

In interviews, Killer Mike and El-P make it clear that, despite only having known each other for a relatively short amount of time, they view each other as best friends, a statement that I have no trouble believing given the creative peaks that they have been able to drag out of one another, peaks that they have never been able to achieve in their solo careers (despite stellar output). This Is beyond a shadow of a doubt the most important, in your face, and completely of-the-moment rap release this year, delivered with the fire and passion of men who have experienced much, and have even more to say about it. Get out your ski masks, the fuccboi jihad is here.