Flatbasset Radio's Album Of The Week for the week of November 3rd-9th:
Run The Jewels - Run The Jewels 2
01. Jeopardy
02. Oh My Darling Don't Cry
03. Blockbuster Night Part 1
04. Close Your Eyes (And Count To Fuck) (w/Zack De La Rocha)
05. All My Life
06. Lie Cheat Steal
07. Early (w/Boots)
08. All Due Respect (w/Travis Barker)
09. Love Again (Akinyele Back) (w/Gangsta Boo)
10. Crown (w/Diane Coffee)
11. Angel Duster
So I guess I'll throw my hat into the ring on this one.
Look, there's nothing I can say about Run The Jewels 2 that hasn't been covered by, almost literally, every other music website on the internet. Stereogum had their profile of Killer Mike & El-P. Pitchfork had theirs too. Rave reviews have been written from the largest websites to the smallest blogs. It's all been covered.
If, incredibly, this is the first you've read about Run The Jewels 2, here's the skinny. El-P and Killer Mike teamed up a couple years ago for Run The Jewels and it was fucking legendary. On the backs of two of their best solo albums (El-P's Cancer For Cure & Killer Mike's R.A.P. Music), the two teamed up for a tour, bonded, and decided it would be fun to release a shit-talking album together. It worked out so well that, suddenly, Mike & El are having the peak years of their respective careers at the age of 39, certainly a first in the youth-oriented world of hip-hop.
RTJ2 picks up where RTJ left off. The shit talking is still epic, however, the act has grown both lyrically and personnel-wise. El-P & Killer Mike spend time on this album exploring their own troubled pasts, the state of the union, and the state of hip-hop with both smirks and fists firmly in tow. As you can see form the track listing above, they weren't short on talented musicians eager to contribute to the group.
All things considered, RTJ & RTJ2 have been wild successes.
Now, let me digress just a bit. I'd like to present you with a little anecdote from the other day.
I got to work the other day and a co-worker of mine says, "Hey man, have you heard that new Run The Jewels yet?"
"I have," I replied. "It's my Album Of The Week on my blog."
"Nice."
A few hours later, we're chatting again. I ask him, "Hey, didn't I try to get you to listen to El-P's stuff a while back?"
"I don't know. Obviously it didn't really work. Isn't he more of a producer?"
SCENE
Now, here's why I bring this little anecdote up. I came to Run The Jewels (and R.A.P. Music) as an El-P junkie. As such I've thoroughly enjoyed the Run The Jewels album and the subsequent widespread success El-P has found.
(And please, make no mistake, I don't wish El-P would stay an underground secret forever. I'm genuinely thrilled that one of the most uniquely talented rapper/producers ever is finally getting his due.)
What concerns me is that a whole new audience of people is just finding out about El-P via Run The Jewels and, perhaps much like my co-worker, view him as "more of a producer." Will those people go back through the catalog and discover Cancer For Cure, I'll Sleep When You're Dead, Fantastic Damage, & Funcrusher Plus? Undoubtedly, yes, some of them will. And that will be awesome.
But part of what made those albums so special (and make no mistake, they are some of the best albums of my lifetime, with ISWYD easily in the top five regardless of genre) is that they seemed to be singuluar, long-gestating dispatches from a man out of step with the world. El-P obsessed over those records like a conspiracy theorist poring over newspaper clippings. They stand as invaluable snapshots of the bizarre post-9/11/pre-Snowden days that we're just now emerging from. Now that he's finally getting the success he deserves, is that artist gone? I mean, honestly, could El-P ever afford to take five years off between LP's again? It seems unlikely and, more importantly, like a bad idea from both a relevancy & financial standpoint. All of which is a shame since everything that's happened post-Snowden has proven that El-P wasn't crazy, but that he was actually the most sane man in the room.
I guess what I'm getting at is that it seems like that second act of El-P's career has come to an end and, from a very, very selfish perspective, that's a shame. I'm know that El would much rather spend his forties making music with his friends and making money than hunkered down in Brooklyn sending out rattled, coded, 75 minute manifestos every five years, but those manifestos were fantastic, special albums. Sad to see that chapter close.
If you'd like to check out Run The Jewels 2 it's available as a free download from the Run The Jewels website. Be sure to pick that up. And be sure to listen to I'll Sleep When You're Dead. The second half is mind-blowing.
