Run the Jewels 2 just turned 10 years old, so to celebrate we’re revisiting the album with fresh eyes and ears. Read our thoughts on one of the most celebrated hip-hop albums of the 2010s below and listen along here; You can also pre-order the 10th Anniversary vinyl reissue here, or enter for a chance to WIN a copy via our giveaway here.
By 2014, Michael “Killer Mike” Render and Jaime “El-P” Meline had established a well-earned reputation as one of the most formidable, abrasive duos in hip-hop and were ready to ascend with Run the Jewels 2, their second go-around as the eponymous group.
Bringing out the best in each other like Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler on the Houston Rockets (as Mike himself said in an interview with NPR), Run the Jewels have created their own version of a musical dynasty: a fiery, political powerhouse that is built to last. But their creative journey was hardly preordained when they were introduced by Williams Street label head Jason DeMarco in 2011.
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At the time, Mike had revitalized his post-Big Boi career by independently releasing the first two entries of his Pledge series and then signing to T.I.’s Grand Hustle to release a third. In contrast, El was emerging from the haze of shutting down his label Definitive Jux and the death of close friend and rapper Camu Tao to focus on his long-in-the-works album Cancer 4 Cure.
Following their meeting, Mike knew El’s spaced-out, new age boom bap was the Bomb Squad-esque production needed to fulfill his vision for an ode to Ice Cube’s AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted. So Mike called El every day for three months until he agreed to produce 2012’s R.A.P. Music. It was indisputably the best album of his career to that point, and Mike returned the favor by contributing a hard-as-hell verse to El’s “Tougher Colder Killer” that same year.
Following a successful tour, it was a no-brainer for the now close friends to form a proper group under the LL Cool J-inspired moniker Run the Jewels. Originally released as a free download, their self-titled 2013 debut was critically acclaimed and brought a new fanbase for both artists. So, signing with Nas’ Mass Appeal Records for a second album was the natural next step.
Arriving the next year, the lead-up to Run the Jewels 2 immediately put any notion of a sophomore jinx to rest with Mike’s “oodles and noodles” shit-talk and El’s anti-establishment rhymes on lead single “Blockbuster Night Pt. 1.” Third single “Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck)” presaged RTJ’s further ascension by chopping up the vocals of Rage Against the Machine’s Zack de la Rocha for a frenetic sample over which the trio blasted the carceral state.
“Conditions create a villain, the villain is given vision,” Mike raps on the track. “The vision becomes a vow to seek vengeance on all the vicious/ Liars and politicians, profiteers of the prisons.”
Going for the jugular, De la Rocha adds, “We sick of bleeding now the trey spray and victim you/ Done dyin’, Phillip AK Dickin’ you/ With clips in the bottom, we dipping through.”
This was all just a small appetizer for what would come with Run the Jewels 2. Mike oozes confidence from the start on album opener “Jeopardy,” setting the tone with a swaggering “izzle” rhyme scheme and proclamation of his group as the “top tag team for two summers.”
Upping the ante, Mike compares himself to Tupac, early Nas, Scarface, Chuck D, Malcolm X, and Bun B — and spends the next 40 minutes backing it up. El-P’s verse is more subtle on the surface, but just as crucial to RTJ’s focus on fighting the system over materialist needs.