In my original review of El-P and Killer Mike's Run the Jewels collaboration I wrote that the rap bffs succeeded in "recasting rap threats as an art-form." While that was an accurate description of their brilliant, mechanical, stream-of-consciousness onslaught, I wish I hadn't used the phrase. Now I have nothing to say about "Blockbuster Night Part 1," the first sampling of RTJ2. What the hell looms above an "art-form?" How can you get larger than life with your chest-puffing?
If you're Killer Mike, you get there by bidding listeners "top of the morning, my fist to your face is f***ing Folgers," as sirens wail like a child who has had their favorite toy taken away. People tend to sit up like a board when you suggest that "the fellows at the top are likely rapists," as El-P does. Especially when that kind of hierarchical takedown is coupled with arrhythmic drums and broken police scanner static. This isn't some political crackpot convention though, it's a thoroughly reworked routine where RTJ "disappear in the smoke like we're f***ing magicians." "Blockbuster Night Part 1 is an orchestrated "macabre massacre." It's bold enough to tell Satan "be patient," but relaxed enough to burn through a pound of weed. As Killer Mike puts it, "it's murder, mayhem, melodic music."
Like the original Run the Jewels, RTJ2 will be available for free download and physical copies will be out October 28 through Mass Appeal. RTJ also has an Adult Swim single dropping on September 15. It's going to be a brutal couple of months.
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