Run the Jewels - RTJ4
Critic Score
Based on 35 reviews
2020 Ratings: #4 / 871
Year End Rank: #3
User Score
2020 Rank: #17
Liked by 1,014 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

100
NME
The righteous rap duo take on police brutality and the fear-mongering media. If a hip-hop album alone could change the world, this might do it.
100
Spill Magazine

Taking the unflinching and abrasive aggression of 2014’s Run The Jewels 2 and the sophistication of 2016’s Run The Jewels 3, RTJ4 is a hip-hop masterpiece that truly advances Run The Jewels’ sound forward in a distinctive, exciting, and unique direction.

100
Dork
Their most laser-focused, high-intensity record yet.
100
The Observer

Killer Mike and El-P have always traded dazzlingly intricate verses, all alliteration and propulsive rhymes, over inventive, nonlinear productions, and RTJ4 supersizes their outsider aesthetic without squandering any hard-won authenticity.

100
DIY
‘RTJ4’ is by far Killer Mike and El-P’s most accomplished chapter, wrought with rage but injected with a humour and wisdom that offers razor-sharp clarity and, with that, an unapologetically raw and sobering take on our times.
100
Sputnikmusic
The magic of their music is that you feel like a part of something bigger than yourself, like you can overcome your own cowardice or at least admit to its existence deep within.
100
The Line of Best Fit

RTJ4 is Killer Mike & El-P’s masterstroke. This is musical evolution for moral, social and political revolution, the group now creating anthems in the pursuit of tolerance, respect and unity.

96
HipHopDX

RTJ4 cements Killer Mike and El-P’s right to be mentioned amongst the greats, especially in the realm of politically charged Hip Hop.

91
Consequence of Sound
Killer Mike and El-P craft a hard-hitting manifesto of boisterous anthems and fearless criticism.
90
Clash

‘RTJ4’ is a must listen. It is diverse enough to appeal to even the hardest crowds.

90
Louder Than War

RTJ4 is a visceral album pulsing with anger and energy; the world is on fire but thankfully so are Run the Jewels. The duo felt important when they dropped their debut album in 2013, now they feel utterly essential.

90
Albumism

Run the Jewels captures these feelings of anger and uncertainty, and channels them into musical form. Like real revolution, it’s not always pretty, but its wholly satisfying and never half steps.

90
Northern Transmissions
Run The Jewels are giving you the soundtrack to fight the oppressors and the antidote to today’s unrelenting barrage of bullshit.
90
Slant Magazine
The album advances the thesis that the nature of modern life is inherently carceral.
90
Exclaim!
Run the Jewels capture our troubled times brilliantly with 'RTJ4' — but police brutality is sadly always relevant.
90
Under the Radar
The album is truly Run the Jewels’ best album to date, without a weak performance or lackluster track to be found. Moreover, it is an explosive call for unity against systemic injustice, and a riveting work of righteous fury.
90
AllMusic

Much like reality, the raw and unflinching RTJ4 is a lot to take in, both a balm for the rage and fuel to keep the fire burning. Although eerily prescient, RTJ4 is less prophetic and more a case of deja vu, addressing the endemic issues of a broken country that sadly continue.

87
Paste
The duo’s fourth album is the culmination of history, trauma and rage.
85
Spectrum Culture

It’s hard to gauge the “importance” of an album as new and fresh in the mind as RTJ4, but even if the day comes when its themes won’t be socially relevant anymore, one can imagine that its power as a work of art will not dissipate over time.

83
Pitchfork
On their fourth installment, Killer Mike and El-P are back to tune up the ruling class and the racist police state, this time streamlining the process and settling into their most natural rhythm.
80
Loud and Quiet

There’s a dichotomy at the heart of records like this. RTJ4 is a stark reminder that the consumption of art as either entertainment or cultural document are two inseparable actions.

80
musicOMH

With this album they add several more tunes to a rich canon of protest music that will galvanise an oppositional movement.

80
Evening Standard

Mostly they sound disturbingly prescient. “You so numb you watch the cops choke out a man like me,” Mike raps on Walking in the Snow. It’s the sound of this precise moment, much as it must pain them to know it.

80
The Forty-Five
Unwavering, powerful and exactly the standard we expect from the rap duo.
80
Q Magazine
This is the sound of RTJ staking their claim as one of the all-time great hip-hop duos.
80
PopMatters

RTJ4 is exactly what you'd expect from two guys who have been down this road three times before without ever missing the mark.

80
The Young Folks

Run the Jewels prove themselves to be a great band on RTJ4, and not just a combination of two separate talents working together.

80
FLOOD Magazine

This all makes for an album both cerebral and primal-scream angry. Both rappers are in prime form; El-P is cuttingly funny and incisive, and Killer Mike has rarely been better.

80
The Needle Drop

RTJ4 is a vital soundtrack to our rotten, rotten world.

80
The Independent

Killer Mike and El-P have long-since learnt how to turn their words into ammunition, but this is a distillation of all their anger and elation, hurt and love.

80
Mojo
Their hardest-hitting salvo.
80
Uncut

Their fourth self-titled LP crackles with a wisecracking energy, the pair ricocheting between righteous state-of-the-nation address and the sort of goofy mischief the Beastie Boys dealt in circa III Communication.

80
Rolling Stone

The agit-rap duo’s fourth LP was recorded before America was ignited in protest, but it still feels perfectly apt for 2020 America.

78
Beats Per Minute

Right off the bat, RTJ4 is the most mature effort for the group, as it does away with a lot of what made the previous efforts unbearable for those few left unassimilated: sophomoric dick jokes and chest pumping.

BradTasteMusic
NR

I love you Killer Mike, thank you for this, hope you best of luck on your fight against the injustices

PipePanic
90

We needed this right now. (Written on the bus, we going raw)

Recently I've been feeling creatively bankrupt. Everytime I go to write something, I'm met with a burning sense of 'why bother'. The world is burning in a virus infested planet, with everywhere you go to turn you are met with the same cries injustice and pain that black people have been facing for so long that has now boiled up and purtruded like a sickening broth or the pig crap silo for The Simpsons Movie, and with a lack of ... read more

Doublez
82

At this painful hour that the United States is going through, which finally touches all the sensible and respectable men of the world, there was nothing better than the duo RTJ to make their voices shout.

It was so much awaited, 4 years later, this last volume has nothing to envy to the others. With an expected brutality, the duo didn't chew, nor mumbled, their words and messages, remaining faithful to themselves. Yet they knew how to develop and evolve their formula which had already seduced ... read more

80

Starts off with an unhinged flow on yankee and the brave, really nails it with ooh la la, and then cools down from thereon out. Couldn't give a shit about the last 3 tracks on this where I know the first two word for word. When RTJ are on, they are fucking on. That being said, El-P continues to carry with some of the best beats in the game. I rate.

Gstv
97

Until this month, march 2024, I had no idea of who Killer Mike was and I only knew El-P from Company Flow. I found out these two great artists had some collab albums so I went and gave this one a try first and it was amazing!
★ out of sight

haramthug
97

Their masterpiece, not a single miss.

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Added on: December 20, 2018