Run the Jewels 2
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CRITIC REVIEWS
100
If the first album was the supernova, RTJ2 is the RTJ universe forming, proving that Mike and El-P's one-off can be a going, and ever growing, concern.
100
RTJ2 is a steamroller of an album, packed with enough assonance and alliteration to school an AP English literature class.
100
Both emcees are incredibly versatile, switching up speed, style and tone, playing off each other one minute, one-upping each other the next.
91
Run The Jewels 2 is concussive. The sequel takes the simplistic thrills of the debut and expands the duo’s natural chemistry. With Killer Mike grounded at the album’s emotional core, El-P is free to indulge in his intrepid production tendencies.
91
An album like RTJ2 is rare. Decades from now, this album may just be revered as one of the best hip-hop records of our era, the total synchronicity of two talented artists reaching the apex of their prime.
90
The egotistic pairing of KIller Mike and El-P are welcoming the challenge, undergoing the seemingly impossible task of raising their blitzkrieg social onslaught to new heights.
90
It's been a minute, but RTJ have reminded us that, yes, rap music can be fun and opinionated simultaneously. In fact, that's when the genre is at its best.
90
You can feel the effort with every syllable, that this music is coming from their very core.
90
Sounding like nothing else and answering to nobody but its creators, Run the Jewels 2 is in a class by itself.
90
This is the best relationship in rap music right now; more than producer/rapper, Render and Meline truly are brothers in arms and they’re here to give us all the push we need to take on the world.
90
Cranking the urgency and confrontation of last year's self-titled debut to neck-breaking levels of intensity, 'RTJ2' is an urgent, paranoid album for a violent, panicked time.
90
RTJ2 is filled with such thoughtful, penetrating moments, tightly wound up in 11 bona fide bangers. It’s a rare collaborative effort that works just as well for newcomers to either contributor as for longtime fans tracking their artistic progress.
90
More aggressive than its predecessor, RTJ2 keeps the party going and explores new arenas in both lyric and sound.
90
Whether it's rage or just two guys trying to make each other laugh with dark humor, RTJ2 stands tall in a year of weak hip-hop.
90
Run the Jewels 2 is better than Run the Jewels 1 and is on par with R.A.P. Music, which is a tough task.
83
Both rappers are clearly in their comfort zones, elevating and challenging one another where the occasion requires. The aesthetics and delivery of RTJ2 are very similar to Run the Jewels; the biggest differences can be found in the lyrics.
80
Run The Jewels 2 is the sound of two 39-year-old men having the best mid-life crisis ever, making near-the-knuckle rap bangers right on the boundary line between the underground and the mainstream.
80
If their first album acted as the duo’s thesis statement, the two MCs laying out the blueprint to what they wanted to accomplish, then this second is a laser-focused execution of that idea, of never letting up and never sugar-coating their sound to fit into any particular lane.
80
Lording up on a gross lack of restraint, it’s a killer blow that keeps on killing, a reminder of just how mad music can be without drowning in self-indulgence.
80
You can probably ascribe their success to two things; one, that they have the intelligence to constantly play to their strengths - RTJ2 is replete with razor-sharp lyricism and clattering, abrasive production - and two, that they don’t hide behind anything.
80
On their second album as Run the Jewels, noise-loving Brooklyn rapper-producer El-P and Atlanta's Killer Mike make the most explosive hip-hop you'll hear all year.
80
Run the Jewels 2 takes the collaboration to the next level, establishing the duo as a unit – and one that’s not to be messed with.
80
Run The Jewels has again pushed rap away from regular rhythms and rhymes and into territories that they’re still calculating the dimensions of.
80
Their style is also a fusion – of El-P’s abrasive, experimental New York styling with Mike’s smooth, almost laconic, Atlanta flow.
80
El-P and Killer Mike team up for an even more ambitious Run the Jewels record!
80
RTJ2 showcases two virtuosic provocateurs pulling absolutely no punches. Lots of industrial-grade fun can be experienced while listening to this record with all of your car’s windows rolled down.
76
Outside of “Love Again,” the album is chock-full of jams from front to back, and RTJ2, in its astonishing scope and finesse, continues a tradition of greatness for the unlikely duo, and serves as one of the more distinguished bright spots in an otherwise stale year for hip-hop.
50
For all the ways that it rightly articulates social justice concerns, RTJ2 refuses to utilize any rhetoric but that of masculinist invective, and the world has enough angry men in it already
EDIT: not quite what i thought it was some months ago. but god damn is this a stunning hip hop poject.
the raps are hard, the beats are hard, the themes are truthful. its heavily underrated in the mainstream and deserved a grammy for hip hop album of the year. insane. the production on this LP and the continuing sound from track to track really is what made RTJ2 stand out to me. the lyrical choice could make some writers take a few tips.
fav tracks: oh my darling don't cry, jeopardy, ... read more
the raps are hard, the beats are hard, the themes are truthful. its heavily underrated in the mainstream and deserved a grammy for hip hop album of the year. insane. the production on this LP and the continuing sound from track to track really is what made RTJ2 stand out to me. the lyrical choice could make some writers take a few tips.
fav tracks: oh my darling don't cry, jeopardy, ... read more
They created something better than RTJ, they deserve Hip Hop Album of the goddamn year.
Run The Jewels return with an even more ambitious sound than their debut. Here, El-P turns the production up a notch, and while it's not too different from the first RTJ album it's even more solid and catchy. It seems on this album they decided to turn the cohesion up to a new level and made every track transition into each other instantly, and that aspect's kept this album on repeat several times for me. Even the weaker tracks don't bother me too much since even in them no moment really feels ... read more
stereogum.com
Stream Run The Jewels’ New Album RTJ4 
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Year End Lists
| #1 | / | CMJ |
| #1 | / | Complex |
| #1 | / | Passion of the Weiss |
| #1 | / | Pitchfork |
| #1 | / | PopMatters |
| #1 | / | Stereogum |
| #2 | / | A.V. Club |
| #2 | / | Billboard |
| #2 | / | Consequence of Sound |
| #2 | / | Entertainment Weekly |
More Lists
Track List
- Jeopardy
- Oh My Darling Don't Cry
- Blockbuster Night Part 1
- Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck) [feat. Zack De La Rocha]
- All My Life
- Lie, Cheat, Steal
- Early (feat. Boots)
- All Due Respect (feat. Travis Barker)
- Love Again (Akinyele Back) [feat. Gangsta Boo]
- Crown (feat. Diane Coffee)
- Angel Duster
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Added on: August 21, 2014