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1" is all razzle dazzle alliteration, while "Oh My Darling Don’t Cry" compiles a career’s worth of flows, from "We Dem Boyz"-derived "hol’ up"s! to Adidas-scuffing tough talk to the triplet-flipping "Move that Dope" cadence. Throughout RTJ2, the duo appear limitless in their vocal capacity, whether working as a tag team, storytellers, or engaging in battle-rap one-upmanship. El and Mike deliver both blows to the sternum and elbow-jabs to the ribs there are hours worth of instantly quotable, clever ignorance, as in El-P’s already much-loved request that haters, "Can all run naked backwards through a field of dicks." Meanwhile, Mike’s verse on "All Due Respect" is a blacked-out, brilliant clinic in rhythm, wordplay and content-"This year, we iller than a nun in a cumshot/ Getting double-penetrated in a dope spot/ By two hard pipe hittin’ niggas/ On the orders of Marcellus to the soundtrack of 2Pac/ I beat you to a pulp, no fiction/ Tarantino flow, new Jules (Jewels) and Vincent."
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Both have been around long enough to recognize they share stages with EDM acts and fans with Future and Young Thug rather than seeing them as threats, they view them as inspiration and competition, as it’s the commercial vanguard who are fucking with language and syntax as much as Def Jux and Dungeon Family ever were.Īnd therein is the most important lack of distinction on RTJ2, that between "old school" and "new school," "lyrical" and whatever its opposite is, as if hip-hop isn’t a living, evolving organism. Run the Jewels are undeniably a crossover hip-hop act, and cognizant of their unique position-Mike and El's career-changing 2012 albums respectively came courtesy of Cartoon Network and a former blues label that spent years claiming the Black Keys as their most "contemporary" act. On the whole, RTJ2 is El-P’s most accessible and rangy production to date and he’s hit a stride that recalls Sonic Youth in 1987 or Animal Collective in 2004, the point where a celebrated noise terrorist starts to embrace and challenge their audience rather than simply testing their patience. As RTJ2 progresses, it’s still the same detritus that filled El-P’s iron galaxy in the past, only now, the forms are recognizable and warm: dub’s echo and synth bass swiped from Amnesiac commingle on "All My Life", vocal snippets are taken from Police Academy’s Michael Winslow on "Oh My Darling Don’t Cry", and Zack De La Rocha on "Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck)" before the real thing comes through to spit some goofy, try-hard "Bombtrack"-style aggro braggadocio that doubles as the best verse of his life. The first half is uncut aggression for any situation in transit, the first thing you can reach for if you’re getting elbowed on the subway or cut off in traffic driving down I-85. They’re two guys with dexterous, booming voices over blaring production that’s percussive, abrasive, and dynamic. This is one of the more readily apparent aspects of Run the Jewels’ development as a functioning group they were a festival act from the start and RTJ2 is a rare hip-hop record that sounds like it was created with live performance in mind. But Run the Jewels exchange Clipse’s unrelenting, and highly specific mean streak for a righteous anger that has a gleeful, conspiratorial edge-Run the Jewels get it and you get them. The sequel feels more like a statement, taking into account crucial constructs like sequencing, judiciously granted guest spots, and pacing. Think of it as the Hell Hath No Fury to Run the Jewels’ We Got It 4 Cheap-the latter were freewheeling collaborations that introduced commercially exiled veterans to a new audience of microphone fiends and completely reframed their public perception. And the transition from mixtape-to-album explains every progression El-P and Killer Mike have made in the past year.
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It’s important to note that RTJ2 is an album-it’s on a real label and you can pay money to own it. For Run the Jewels, these people are what cocaine was to Clipse, sex to Lil Wayne, clothing to Cam’ron-their domain, their muse, a seemingly endless source of inspiration for the most viciously realized rap album of 2014 and most other years.
#CLOSE YOUR EYES AND COUNT RUN THE JEWLE FULL#
Otherwise, when El-P sneers, "You want a whore in a white dress/ I want a wife with a thong" during "Angel Duster", it’s a metaphor that implicates just about everybody in his blast radius-conservative and liberal politicians who hide their bullshit ideals behind "values," religious figures doing the same, beta-male types using performative tolerance as a front for their passive-aggressive misogyny, or just anyone who’s full of shit.