RTJ4
A furious, masterfully produced document of societal collapse. Abrasive industrial beats meet razor-sharp, tag-team political commentary.
A furious, masterfully produced document of societal collapse. Abrasive industrial beats meet razor-sharp, tag-team political commentary.
Protest movement soundtrack
A blistering, analog-grit assault explodes from the speakers, meeting the civil unrest of its release window with a furious, street-level immediacy. The production trades the cold, neon-lit anxiety of their third outing for a massive wall of distorted bass and classic boom-bap samples, sounding less like a studio creation and more like a live, basement-show riot. Over these heavy, head-snapping grooves, the two veteran emcees deliver their most urgent and defiant social commentary yet, balancing grim systemic truths with sharp, boastful punchlines.
The sonic landscape shifts toward a harsher, more immediate crisis-mode by drenching the beats in abrasive noise textured layers that rattle like a fence under siege.
Critics widely praised the album for its timely reflections on systemic injustice, warmly embracing its heartfelt solidarity with marginalized communities. Reviewers also celebrated the duo's natural musical chemistry, noting how their diverse, rhythmically fluid hip-hop beautifully channels both fierce anger and deep empathy for a fractured world.
“The agit-rap duo’s fourth LP was recorded before America was ignited in protest, but it still feels perfectly apt for 2020 America”Read review
“Run the Jewels have always had a taste for action-movie hyperbole, but as they’ve powered through their careers, the lines between slapstick and real have almost ceased to exist”Read review
“On their fourth installment, Killer Mike and El-P are back to tune up the ruling class and the racist police state, this time streamlining the process and settling into their most natural rhythm”Read review
“Killer Mike and El-P have been speaking out about the deep rot at the core of the USA for their whole careers, and with this album they add several more tunes to a rich canon of protest music that will galvanise an oppositional movement”Read review
“The righteous rap duo take on police brutality and the fear-mongering media. If a hip-hop album alone could change the world, this might do it”Read review
“Killer Mike and El-P have long-since learnt how to turn their words into ammunition, but this is a distillation of all their anger and elation, hurt and love”Read review
“The duo’s fourth album is the culmination of history, trauma and rage”Read review
“Mike’s lyrical dedications to the downtrodden and disenfranchised throughout RTJ4 amount to a fitting soundtrack for this fractured moment.”Read review
“RTJ4 may very well be the most important album out right now. It doesn’t reinvent the group’s sound or change the message. Rather, RTJ4 is the most potent, well-delivered incarnation of their work, released amidst the most essential moment for it”Read review
“‘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”Read review
“Structurally inventive, lyrically deft, passionate and heartbroken, RTJ4 positions Run the Jewels as the laureates of our collapsing era”Read review
“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”Read review
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