FEATURE:
Revisiting…
Run the Jewels – RTJ4
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THIS time out in Revisiting…
I recommend people listen back to one of the best albums of 2020. Sometimes, in this feature, I revisit albums from the past five years that were overlooked. That is not the case with Run the Jewels’ RTJ4. A monumental release from El-P and Killer Mike, I hope that people pick it up. I don’t think radio stations examine and spin the album as much as they should. I am going to finish with a couple of reviews for the album. 2020 was an incredible year for music. Albums from Taylor Swift (folklore), Rina Sawayama (SAWAYAMA), and Dua Lipa (Future Nostalgia) arrived in the first year of the pandemic. It is amazing that such amazing music came out at a very difficult time. There was something potent and important about RTJ4 arriving when it did. The album was released in June 2020, only a month after the murder of George Floyd in the U.S. Such a charged, sensational and essential album, this is one for the ages! I want to source one of a number of interviews Run the Jewels provided to promote RTJ4. COMPLEX spoke with them about, perhaps, their greatest album – one that may well be their last:
“On your website, there’s a message to the fans for RTJ4. It reads: "We never thought that when we were doing the first one that RTJ would become our whole lives and honestly we're so grateful that it did." Can you elaborate on why you posted that message and the sentiment behind it?
Killer Mike: I was just going to say I'm very proud to be defined as a part of two different partnerships. There's my marriage with my wife Shay and there's the marriage that is Run the Jewels.
El-P: Run the Jewels was born out of a moment of us hanging out with our friends and making some music. We really didn't have any idea what it would become. Writing that to our supporters was just us acknowledging how grateful we are, and I think that a lot of people try and present everything that happens to them as like, “Oh yeah my plan worked.” The truth is is that we would be fucking lying if we were saying our plan worked. We didn't have a fucking plan. We just reacted to our friendship, then to the music, and then to the impact the music was having.
I think that me and Mike both sensed there was some greatness in it. There was something that we could do together that I don't think either of us would have pulled off or could possibly pull off on our own. Just know that when you're fucking with us, you're fucking with two guys who are excited that this is even happening still and are grateful for this and therefore grateful for people who let us do it.
You've mentioned the magic that happens with you guys. You guys have made your own exceptional solo work, but something is just different when you two come together. RTJ4 is the clearest evidence of that. What is that?
Killer Mike: Who knows why strawberry lemonade got invented? You know, the shit you get at the The Cheesecake Factory? Who the fuck was sitting around stoned like, “You know what? I need to put strawberry puree in a already fucking classic?" So I have no idea why the magic happens. What I do think and I do give myself credit for this: I recognized we had magic within the first three hours of knowing each other. Within the first three hours, I literally was calling my manager like, "Hey, man, I am Ice Cube who's just found his Bomb Squad.”
I knew El and I were supposed to be making music together. I knew R.A.P. Music was supposed to be produced entirely by him, but when we went on the road and we performed as Run the Jewels, I knew that it was something special and magical and I knew that I didn't have responsibility for knowing why people like strawberry lemonade. It was my responsibility to make sure they kept getting strawberry lemonade. I wanted to make sure that through it all Run the Jewels became the prominent driving force because it allowed me to be as creative as I ever wanted to be.
It allows me to be as creative as a 15-year-old who wants to make a record about angst and what I'm angry about with society just to get it off my chest so I don't implode. At the same time, I get to rap about shooting an old lady or a poodle if they don't meet my demands. There's something very freeing about having a partner to balance yourself with. As a solo artist you get locked into a character. Not that the character isn't you or based on you or who you are. I'm just as much as Killer Mike as I ever was, but Run the Jewels enhances the ability for that to be fully me in a lot of ways. I can be both the Michael that smokes weed and doesn't give a fuck on one record, and the Michael that gives a shit on the next record and no one says, "Oh, he's contradicting himself." They simply say, "What El and Mike managed to do is magic.” I don't know why it's magic, but I do know that it's our job to keep making magic as long as we aspire to.
El-P: Me and Mike are very different people. We have very different ways of getting to our points. We have very different ways of expressing ourselves, but there's this fundamental agreement that we have on a lot of things and we agree on allowing ourselves room to be who we are and no matter what that may be. From being silly and jokey to stupid, serious or sad, there's a safety and an agreement between us that we got each other's backs.
The solo stuff I was doing when I met Mike was important to me, and I'm proud of those records. I think that they had their own voice. That's very different from what I do at Run the Jewels, if you were to ask me what's more fun, I would say getting high and rapping with my friend is a lot more fucking fun. Inspiration has to come out of fun, and when you get that you don't want to turn away. Sometimes it's not fun, but even when the hard moments come it just means that we are actually humans and that we're voices that are constantly trying to learn how to work with each other. The result of that shit is something that neither of us can replicate on our own. It's just the truth.
There was chatter about this being the last RTJ album, but you’re both saying there’s too much fun being had to stop now. What does that fun look like?
El-P: Yeah, it was really weird, motherfuckers started being like, "Will Run the Jewels continue?" It's like why wouldn't we? It always baffled me. Like do you hear this shit that we're making? This shit's great!
Killer Mike: When you say, "What's your idea of fun?" Walking in a room to a dope-ass, jamming-ass beat with a joint in your hand having to figure out how to make this motherfucker doper so that you aren't so in awe that you just sit there and listen to it. When you walk in a room and El has just laid the most cutthroat, killer verse ever, you're sitting there like, “Oh I got to fucking step up!” That's fun. That's Michael Jordan's pregame. That's Kobe Bryant shooting a hundred shots after the game. When we say fun we're not talking about doing a dilly dally—we're talking about the work, but the work is satisfying”.
The reviews for RTJ4 were overwhelmingly positive. It is an album that is impossible not to be moved and affected by. This is what AllMusic wrote in their review of one of 2020’s best albums:
“Arriving earlier than expected as both a global pandemic and a nationwide movement against police brutality gripped the United States, RTJ4 distills the anger and frustration of the people through Run the Jewels' hard-hitting, no-nonsense revolution anthems. Trim with no filler, this fourth set from the outspoken duo provides relevant history lessons that are more useful than a classroom textbook. Rousing and lyrically dexterous, Killer Mike and El-P deliver their densest collection yet, balancing clever bon mots with tongue-twisting screeds decrying police brutality, systemic racism, class injustice, and a litany of other ills plaguing the nation. RTJ4 rarely strays from the intensely political; when it does, the duo shine with boastful quips and chest-thumping bravado, loosely weaving their "Yankee and the Brave" personas -- alluding to the baseball teams from their respective home bases -- with production that merges old-school hip-hop nostalgia with aggressively sharp contemporary stylings. BOOTS and Dave Sitek return for the very RTJ-titled "Holy Calamafuck," a menacing attack that's bested only by the clattering "Goonies vs. E.T.," which sounds like a Prodigy
Additional guests include 2 Chainz on the breathless "Out of Sight"; DJ Premier and Greg Nice on the "DWYCK"-sampling "Ooh La La"; and Mr. Muthafuckin eXquire on the neon dystopia of "Never Look Back." Meanwhile, an unlikely pair join forces on the swirling "Pulling the Pin," with Josh Homme's ghostly wails and Mavis Staples' pained cries creating an RTJ-meets-...Like Clockwork doomscape that pushes back against a power structure that allows for "filthy criminals...at the pinnacle." On album highlight "JU$T," "poet pugilist" Zack de la Rocha and Pharrell Williams join the fight by contributing popping production and a condensed socio-economic lecture, pulling back the curtain to reveal "murderous chokehold cops still earning a living" and "all these slave masters posing on your dollars." On "Walking in the Snow," Mike, El-P and Gangsta Boo tackle the American school-to-prison pipeline and those "chokehold cops," directly invoking the spirit of Eric Garner -- who was killed by Staten Island police in 2014 as he pleaded, "I can't breathe" -- and unwittingly honoring George Floyd, whose murder under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer prompted protests across the globe and pushed RTJ4's early release. Bringing the past and present full circle, Mike reminds listeners to "never forget in the story of Jesus, the hero was killed by the state." 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. This has all happened before and, as El-P laments, this is the "same point in history back to haunt us”.
The final review I want to source is from CLASH. As mentioned, the reaction to RTJ4 was enormously impassioned and positive. I think that the album still sounds as powerful and earth-moving nearly two years later:
“Back at it like a crack addict, / Mr. Black Magic” announces Killer Mike, kicking off the album with ‘Yankee And The Brave (Ep. 4)’. A two-and-a-half-minute reintroduction to the unmistakable sound of Run The Jewels. From the offset it’s obvious: the boys are back; this is Trump’s America and they aren’t taking it lightly. The drum beat pounds the track with maliciousness as both rappers growl aggressively over the Schwartz brothers and El-P produced beat.
‘RTJ4’ dropped ahead of its expected release date. Pushed forward by the rappers themselves in wake of the recent murder of George Floyd. The early release was announced on social media along with a download link to access the 11-track digital album for free. The message read:
F-ck it, why wait.
The world is infested with bullshit so here’s something raw to listen to while you deal with it all. We hope it brings you some joy. Stay safe and hopeful out there and thank you for giving 2 friends the chance to be heard and do what they love.
Run The Jewels is a legendary combination of two highly skilled MCs. Atlanta, Georgia’s Killer Mike and Brooklyn, New York’s El-P, who also produces RTJ cuts. Both are veterans of the rap game. Separately, they are masters of wordplay. Together they are a hip-hop supergroup. This, their consecutively titled fourth album, is a welcome return for the duo. Featuring appearances by 2 Chainz, Pharrell Williams, Zack De La Rocha, Greg Nice, DJ Premier, Mavis Staples and Josh Homme. Those wanting a physical copy will have to wait until September.
‘Ooh La La’ sets the scene for us. Featuring renowned producer and one half of Gang Starr, DJ Premier, and Greg Nice of late 80s rap group Nice & Smooth. Introducing the video with the text “One day the long fought battle between humanity and the forces of greed and division will end, and on that day, finally free, we will throw a motherf-ing party...” the visuals feature the artists in the midst of a crowd of revellers who are dumping bags of money and credit cards onto a street bonfire before setting them alight.
Indeed, El-P spits fire behind the literal flames: “I used to be a munchkin / Wasn’t ‘posed to be nothin’ / Ya’ll f-ckers corrupted / Or up to somethin’ disgustin...” The boom-bap is strong in this one and it was hard not to feel the energy within.
2 Chainz joins the party in Out of Sight. As Mike and EL playfully exchange rhymes back and forth over a sample of Foster Sylvers’ ‘Misdemeanor’, co-produced by Little Shalimar and Wilder Zoby. I sense echoes of Run-DMC throughout the first verse. Was that a subtle sample of The Sugarhill Gang’s version of ‘Apache’, I could hear buried in there?
‘RTJ4’ gets darker as it progresses. Holy Calamaf-ck strikes hard with the ragga dancehall inspired beat as EL-P boasts: “I’m the decider / You evil eyers / A pile driver provider for liars / The sleep depriver...” before the beat switches as the New Yorker continues: “Ayo, one for mayhem / Two for mischief / Now aim for the drones in your zoning district / Hindenburg ‘em, / get ‘em / burn ‘em / Can’t give the ghost up / No resistance.” The contrasting styles of the rappers are apparent here, with Mike’s southern drawl holding steady against EL’s flow, not too dissimilar from late fellow New Yorker, Big Pun.
‘Walking In The Snow’, the album’s sixth track features a guest appearance by one time Three 6 Mafia member Gangsta Boo. The beat is heavy and the lyrics are eerily all too close for comfort as Mike takes us back to the 2014 death of Eric Garner at the hands of the police: “And every day on evening news, they feed you fear for free / And you so numb you watch the cops choke out a man like me / And 'til my voice goes from a shriek to whisper / ‘I can't breathe’ / And you sit there in the house on couch and watch it on TV / The most you give's a Twitter rant and call it a tragedy.” Such lyrics are hard to listen to, especially in the wake of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of a police officer.
‘RTJ4’ is a must listen. It is diverse enough to appeal to even the hardest crowds. Many genres are represented here, but lyrical hip-hop is at the forefront of all that Run The Jewels is. They stand out from the crowd, whilst invoking the people to stand up for themselves. There is not a bad song on the entire album and the production and features are second to none. I kept rewinding the tracks, not just from a reviewer’s perspective, but to hear the how well combined Mike and El-P are.
As the album’s finale builds up with a saxophone crescendo, the track fades out before we are once again introduced to the mock TV show Yankee And The Brave. As I pressed play once more on the album, I realised I cannot wait to hear what Run The Jewels 5 will bring”.
An album that will rank alongside the best of this decade when we look back years from now, Run the Jewels’ RTJ4, let’s hope, is not their last! One of the most powerful albums I have heard, maybe its songs are not played and discussed as much today as they were back in 2020. Let’s hope that this changes…
VERY soon.