“This is the story of a couple of small-time hustlers, framed by crooked cops and forced to make a run for their lives with nothing but a bag of money, a stolen Buick Grand National and each other to their name. They ain’t friends exactly; these guys have a better chance of killin’ each other, than beatin’ the odds. No sir, they’re brothers. And when the chips are down, I really don’t think you’d wanna bet against them. Yankee and The Brave.”
The band’s theme tune, and the words that close Run the Jewels 4.
Run the Jewels have always been a lot of things to a lot of people. Previous albums have made art out of melding chest-puffing braggadocio and wit with social and political activism. With RTJ4, Killer Mike and El-P may have produced their most evolved, most important work to date. A triumph of unapologetic rage and vivid beauty.
RTJ4 is the sound of a band at the top of their game. Mike and El have never been better on the mic, the urgency of a pair, weary but defiant, weaved into every syllable they spit. El-P’s beats are, as always, controlled explosions of palpable fury. The wit is still there, of course. Tracks like ‘out of sight’ and ‘holy calamafuck’ (with 2 Chainz lending a verse to the former) are the duo at their dick-swinging best. These songs never for a second detract from the seriousness of the bands message.
Amid protests sparked by the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police, tracks like ‘walking in the snow’ and ‘a few words for the firing squad (radiation)’ have taken on a heartbreaking timeliness. RTJ4 can be an uncomfortable listen, consistently challenging the listener; the central thesis of the band is laid out in brutal terms with Killer Mike’s final words on the album “last words to the firing squad was fuck you too”.
The beauty of Run the Jewels lies in the ability to straddle humour while delivering their message in no uncertain times; Run the Jewels exists as a push back against injustice, racism and bigotry in all forms, wherever it may exist. Two facets of a band married under a promise of revolution. RTJ4 equips the listener with the tools for that revolution. Marching together under the banner of the fist and the pistol.
Andrew Christie 