Anyone who says that sequels are never better than the original clearly hasn’t listened to Run the Jewels 2. And anyone who hasn’t listened to Run The Jewels 2 – the latest collaboration between Atlanta rapper Killer Mike and Brooklyn-based producer/emcee El-P – is seriously missing out on the best rap album of the year and my favorite new music release of 2014, period.
Given how much hype RTJ2 has generated in the past few months alone, it’s weird to think that Run the Jewels wasn’t even a thing just two years ago. Mike and El, two middle-aged music vets from different walks of life, decided to record a handful of songs together for fun after collaborating on each other’s excellent late-career solowork in 2012. The tracks they laid down eventually morphed into the 2013 free mixtapeRun the Jewels, an odd couple hip-hop masterpiece that ended up becoming a crucial entry point into the genre for me.
But where the first Run the Jewels LP certainly catered to the boastful, free-form and “fun” aspects of its creators, RTJ2 injects their belligerent beat-making with a solemnly political and introspective edge that recalls the best output of their forebears.
On tracks like “Early,” Killer Mike – who spoke out in the aftermath of the Michael Brown shooting earlier this year – dissects problems of police violence and race over one of El-P’s signature woozy, dystopian beats and an eerie chorus by the singer-songwriter BOOTS. “Crown (feat. Diane Coffee)” stands as RTJ’s most sober offering to date, with Mike reflecting on the nadir of his days as a drug dealer while El waxes poetic about the perilous seduction of violent revenge with lines like, “This is for everything you’ve ever loved/Use all the pain that you’ve felt in your life as the currency, go out and trade it for blood.”
Perhaps RTJ2’s most impressive feat is balancing such cutting commentary while still sounding like something you'd want to blast at your next block party. Save for a few slower jams on the album’s back half, every track on RTJ2 is a straight-up barnburner, doubling down on the bass-heavy, industrial production that made the first album such a standout.
Just how effing bangin’ is RTJ2? Bangin’ enough to make Rage Against the Machine’s Zach de la Rocha and Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker seem ten times cooler than you ever thought they were during your checkered Vans slip-on phase of middle school.
De la Rocha’s guest verse on the album’s third single and best song, “Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck),” might be the highlight of his career, and El-P warps his nasty vocal sample into an indelible, ear-wormy hook. On late album standout “All Due Respect,” Barker’s gunshot clatter drumming nicely grooves with Mike and El’s percussive lyrical flow and booming backing tracks. Not only do these songs recall the halcyon days of 13-year-old me jamming to "Killing in the Name Of," they also present some of my favorite musicians from the past in a fresh light.
Outside of the neat-o guest spots, songs like “Blockbuster Night Part 1” and “Oh My Darling Don’t Cry” have RTJ trading hilarious, jaw-droppingly dexterous verses with a fiery chemistry that only further solidifies their all-star status. Mike and El are clearly not only two of the best rappers working today; they also bolster each other’s unique talents and confidence in ways that are unpredictable and consistently impressive.
Even a review of RTJ2 seems redundant when El-P sums up my feelings so nicely in his own words on the simmering album opener “Jeopardy:”
“Run the Jewels is the answer/Your question is 'What's poppin'?'"
For those interested (should be all of you by now), Run the Jewels 2 is available for free download here.