Happy 10th Anniversary to Run The Jewels’ second studio album Run The Jewels 2, originally released October 24, 2014.
Run The Jewels could have very easily been a “one and done” endeavor. Michael “Killer Mike” Render and Jaime “El-P” Meline, two successful solo artists, came together to start working together during the early 2010s. They eventually formed the duo Run The Jewels, recording a debut album of the same name, and releasing it for free in 2013, with the support of Fool’s Gold Records. The album’s success culminated in a hugely successfully tour, where the pair each “opened up” as solo artists, before performing together as Run The Jewels.
After the success of the Run The Jewels debut, Killer Mike and El-P could have very well gone back to their solo careers. Both had built dedicated fanbases and had extremely dope discographies working on their own, and the two could have attempted to parlay their success as a unit into the foundation to whatever next steps they wanted to take as separate artists. Instead, they put together their follow-up, aptly titled Run The Jewels 2.
Mike and El-P decided to record Run The Jewels 2 after their aforementioned highly successful first tour. The buzz and the crowds grew as that tour progressed, until it became very apparent to the duo that they had something special on their hands, and that they’d be remiss if they didn’t capitalize on their increased popularity. The duo began working on recording new material almost immediately, signing to Mass Appeal Records along the way.
On Open Mike Eagle’s What Had Happened Was podcast, El-P said that he was very willing to do another Run The Jewels project, but insisted to Mike that the second album had to be a step up for the pair. The first installment was very heavy on braggadocio and “I don’t give a fuck” attitude, and they felt the sequel needed to address more complex social issues, as each of the pair had done through their own material.
The strategy pays off, as the sequel surpasses the original installment. Released 10 years ago, it’s my personal favorite among all of the group’s releases. It was the best album of 2014, and one of the best albums of the 2010s.
The project does begin with some high-quality shit talking, kicking off with back-to-back-to-back all-time great confrontational tracks. Rather than charging out the gate like on the O.G. Run The Jewels, the pair start things off with the more deliberate “Jeopardy,” with both emcees stalking their enemies like prey over a funereal backdrop. Once again, Mike carries himself with the presence of the baddest motherfucka on Planet Earth, rapping, “I live for the thrill of the kill, yes it excites me / You know your favorite rapper ain't shit and me, I might be / The closest representation of God you might see / Pay honors like your momma young son and take a right knee.” El speaks as an emcee who’s been underestimated and overlooked for much of his career. “When nothing to lose a step up then everything's for the win,” he raps. “So, we grin in the face of frauds and tell monsters to suck our dicks.”
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“Don’t Cry” sounds like a hybrid of a Newcleus song and a malfunctioning video game. After a fittingly berserk introduction from actor Michael Winslow, El and Mike conduct themselves with a brash abandon. The brief “Blockbuster Night Pt. 1” is the audio equivalent of a head-butt to the dome and is the most rugged track on Run The Jewels 2. Mike and El-P deliver a continuous stream of short verses, rhyming with menacing focus over threatening guitars and percussion. Mike is again in a zone, proclaiming, “You rappers doodoo, baby shit, just basic boo boo / I'm Shaka Zulu, Mansa Musa, my money's beaucoup.” He later batters his lyrical foes with lines like, “I Jake the Snake ’em, DDT ’em in mausoleums / Macabre massacres, killing cunts in my coliseum.”
“All Due Respect” is another high energy lyrical extravaganza, bolstered by the presence of Travis Barker. I’ve never been much of a Blink-182 fan, but Barker definitely understands the assignment here, with his drumming giving the track an almost marching band feel. El-P boasts about achieving greatness through their music, and asserts, “Run the J’s we don't run so much / It’s all fun and games till my J’s get scuffed.”
“Love Again (Akinyele Back)” was a different type of record for the duo at the time. According to El on What Had Happened Was, the original idea for the song was the pair talking shit built around a sample of Sam Kinison shouting “Dick in your mouth all day!” That changed when Killer Mike penned a sex-related rap, and then the song morphed into a celebration of fucking someone that you love.
After initially recording to both of their verses, El said that the pair decided the song was still missing its mark and could be confused as a cliched sex rap track. Hence, they enlisted Gangsta Boo to deliver the final verse, feeling that a woman’s perspective would let the audience in on the proverbial “joke.” The final result features all three rhyming over siren-like keyboards, engaging in all manners of “deviant” sexual activity that they happily engage in with the object of their desire, who is just as enthusiastic.
Run The Jewels do create socially conscious music throughout Run The Jewels 2, often zeroing in on police brutality. Police officers abusing their power to either injure or kill Black citizens has long been an issue in the United States, but it was drawn into focus once again during the summer and fall of 2014 after the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner (Tamir Rice would be killed weeks after RTJ2 was released). These incidents made the material that the duo recorded even more immediate and vital.
Killer Mike and El-P team up with Rage Against The Machine frontman Zack De La Rocha on “Close Your Eyes And Count To Fuck,” a boisterous and belligerent track, filled with blaring synths and rugged guitars. Mike gives a full-throated endorsement for violent and lethal rebellion towards law enforcement institutions, bellowing, “We are killing them for freedom 'cause they tortured us for boredom / And even if some good ones die, fuck it, the Lord’ll sort ’em.” Meanwhile, El-P declares himself “a dirty boy who come down on the side of dissonance / I can’t even relax without sirens off in the distances.” The song is well known for the music video associated with it, featuring actors Shea Whigham and LaKeith Stansfield as a cop and young Black male, respectively, brutally beating the holy hell out of each other as part of an eternal struggle.
“Early” deals with police brutality in an even more thought-provoking manner, as Mike and El narrate a deadly encounter from two entirely different perspectives. Mike portrays a man pulled over for a “stop and frisk” traffic-stop by a pair of belligerent officers while he’s out with his wife and kids. He ends up handcuffed in the back of a police car, helpless as the cops shoot and kill his wife for protesting his arrest. Meanwhile, El takes the perspective of a resident on an adjacent block from where the incident occurred, enveloped in apathy and denial, numb to the plight of others because he doesn’t feel like dealing with it.
The brooding “Crown” finds both emcees lost in their own minds. Mike portrays a remorseful former drug dealer who has no moved on with his life, haunted by a time when he sold crack to a pregnant woman years before. He runs into her years later and apologizes, shocked to realize that she absolves him of all his guilt, and that she encourages him to forgive himself for his own trespasses. With his verse, El-P struggles with his “programming” as a solider in a cult-like military, taught to forsake his individuality and embracing his role as an emotionless instrument of death.
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“Angel Duster” serves a similar purpose as “A Christmas Fucking Miracle” from the Run The Jewels debut, with the group taking the bleakest victory lap ever recorded. The pair cover a range of topics, from heralding their own ascension to higher echelons of recognition, to decrying the government and organized religion’s abuse of power. Mike ends the song on a triumphant note, rapping, “Defeated the odds, went to war with the gods / Earned all our scars and came back straight RTJ.”
Run The Jewels again went on a nationwide tour to support this album. They began the tour performing larger clubs and venues than they had the first time around, and ended the proceedings on the festival circuit, giving memorable performances at Coachella and Bonnaroo. They achieved this success not only by refusing to compromise, but also by ensuring that their music spoke directly to the downtrodden and forgotten. Run The Jewels might have been the right group for the right time, but their music is still timeless. And Run The Jewels 2 remains the best of it.
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