Run The Jewels 2
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Album Summary
Run The Jewels 2, the second studio album from the rap duo of Killer Mike and El-P, came roaring out of the gates on October 24, 2014, dropped as a free digital download through Mass Appeal Records — and baby, when something this righteous gets handed to the people at no cost, you know the artists believe in what they've made. Recorded primarily in New York, the record was produced almost entirely by El-P, whose dense, abrasive, industrial-kissed sonic architecture gave the whole affair the feeling of a freight train that had been lit on fire. The duo had been riding high off the momentum of their self-titled 2013 debut, and RTJ2 arrived with a heightened sense of urgency and purpose that felt almost prophetic for its moment. Guest appearances from Rage Against the Machine's Zack de la Rocha, Gangsta Boo, and Boots only added to the sense that something genuinely important was being committed to tape.
Reception
- Run The Jewels 2 received near-universal critical acclaim, earning a score of 94 on Metacritic and landing at the top of numerous year-end best-of lists for 2014 across major music publications.
- Despite being offered entirely as a free download, the album debuted at number 51 on the Billboard 200, a remarkable testament to the cultural pull Killer Mike and El-P had built.
- The album won the Pazz & Jop critics' poll for Album of the Year in 2014, cementing its place as one of the most celebrated and consequential hip-hop records of that era.
Significance
- Run The Jewels 2 stands as a landmark in politically charged independent hip-hop, its confrontational lyrics addressing systemic racism, police brutality, and economic inequality arriving at a historically electric moment coinciding with the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement — this was music that meant something, and the world felt it.
- El-P's maximalist, noise-influenced production on the record pushed forward a strain of industrial and punk-indebted rap that expanded the sonic vocabulary of critically embraced hip-hop in ways that reverberated through the genre for years to come.
- The album's free-download release model was a bold and defiant statement against conventional music industry distribution, proving that cultural weight and critical impact could be forged entirely outside the machinery of commercial frameworks.
Tracklist
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A1 Jeopardy 179
3:21
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A2 Oh My Darling Don't Cry 104
3:24
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A3 Blockbuster Night, Pt. 1 —
2:32
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B1 Close Your Eyes (And Count To Fuck) 79
3:54
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B2 All My Life 120
3:07
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B3 Lie, Cheat, Steal 166
3:28
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C1 Early 120
3:44
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C2 All Due Respect 142
2:47
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C3 Love Again (Akinyele Back) 145
3:45
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D1 Crown 164
3:45
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D2 Angel Duster 175
5:09
Artist Details
Run The Jewels is a fire-breathing hip-hop duo born out of the creative union of Atlanta's own Killer Mike and Brooklyn's El-P, who joined forces in 2013 and unleashed a sound so raw and politically charged it cut right through the noise of a crowded industry like a hot knife through butter. Their music — a thunderous blend of boom-bap grit, avant-garde production, and unapologetic social commentary — spoke truth to power at a time when the world desperately needed voices willing to say what others were afraid to say. They gave their self-titled debut album away for free, a bold move that cemented their reputation as artists who put the music and the message above the machinery of commerce, and in doing so built one of the most fiercely loyal followings in modern hip-hop.
