Tired of the musical equivalent of small-talk, or the musical equivalent of obnoxious drunkards calling attention to themselves by seeing how many scalding onion rings they can fit down their pants? Despite the “boast rap” impression that you might’ve gotten from their debut LP, Run the Jewels (Killer Mike & El-P) have a remarkably straightforward and unpretentious thing going on here, to the point where you might consider the duo as seriously cool accountants in a parallel universe. As in: the “Run the Jewels” name was chosen because it was “dope.” Success hasn’t fed their ego; instead, they’re motivated by a desire to remain… well, “dope.”
And all signs point to them continuing their bare, direct, and unwavering pursuit of the “dope” on their just-announced sophomore LP — the simply-titled RTJ2, out October 28 on Mass Appeal. There’s talk from El-P himself about the album continuing a natural trajectory toward something “darker,” but in terms of quality, Killer Mike has the ultimate, tremendously bold ruling: “it is the best rap group album since RTJ1!” (which came out last year, btw). Album appearances from Travis Barker and former Rage Against the Machine front man Zack de la Rocha might actually be bold, though.
Check the new single below, and anticipate RTJ’s contribution to Adult Swim’s Singles series on September 15.
• Run the Jewels: http://www.runthejewels.net
• Mass Appeal: http://massappeal.com
More about: El-P, Killer Mike, Run the Jewels
