First off, this album is not for those looking to be touched by soft sing song rap, this album kicks you in the face from the first track. The first words on the album are Killer Mike just yelling "I'm finna bang this bitch the fuck out! You betta' You might wanna record the way you feelin' like history bein' made." Right after that the beat drops and hits you in the face. From that point on there is no slowing down or stopping. The album reminds you of an N.W.A. album in the sense that there's no breaks, just wall to wall aggressive instrumentals. Even the slower tracks like "Crown" are filled with gritty drums.
Lyrically you know there's heat. One of my favorite lyrics on the album comes from Killer Mike, he says "It’s obese female opera singer you can run the jewels or lose your fingers." That's a cool line by itself but it's also a throwback to the first Run The Jewels album when he said "I'm no respecter of person, I'm no respecter of rules I catch the prince of England slipping, he goin' run me the jewels." It's obvious Killer Mike has a thing for making the wealthy run the jewels.
But it's not all jokes. On the song "Early" Killer Mike raps about being profiled and arrested for smoking in front of his house. Killer Mike has never been shy about the abuse of power he sees in the police forces across America. On this song he paints a picture of almost every black man's fear and possible reality. Being arrested for doing nothing. El-P continues the topic on his verse. His verse paints an almost perfect picture of the recent events in Ferguson leading to Mike Brown's death. He makes reference to the government controlling what information comes out, thus defining truth and the game. He also speaks about how police officers have no problem killing kids and continue to avoid body cameras.
My favorite tracks are "Early," for the reasons discussed above. My second favorite track is "Lie Cheat Steal," because that's what Eddie Guerrero taught us all. The song points out that sometimes people on the bottom have to lie cheat and steal to reach top. Eddie Guerrero did that his entire career. Eddie also spoke a lot about Latino's having to overcome racism. In case you haven't noticed by now, Run The Jewels is all about overcoming racism.
Run The Jewels 2 is a great follow up to the first album. It's not something the average rap fan is going to just pick up and love. It touches on a lot of sensitive issues and doesn't pull any punches. It also doesn't have tracks that you can just chill or party to. It's an aggressive, and dirty album made to point out all kinds of issues in the world right now. Wars, racism, classism, religion and everything else. It's a heavy album, but it's a good album that deserves your time.
You can hear Darrell on the CP Time and Powerbomb Jutsu podcasts. He's also playing Pokemon Liquid Crystal on YouTube
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