RTJ4

Run The Jewels

RTJ4

Fourth studio album from the two hip hop heavyweights Killer Mike and El-P featuring guest appearances from 2 Chainz, Zack de la Rocha, DJ Premier, Josh Homme, Greg Nice, Mavis Staples, and Pharrell Williams

ADM rating[?]

8.8

Label
BMG Rights Management
UK Release date
03/06/2020
US Release date
03/06/2020
  1. 10.0 |   Sputnik Music (staff)

    El-P’s beats sound like they were rolled in breading and dropped into a fryer, the intense heat of chemical reactions bubbling to the surface and scalding those who get too close
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  2. 10.0 |   The Line Of Best Fit

    RTJ4 is Killer Mike & El-P’s masterstroke. This is musical evolution for moral, social and political revolution, the group now creating anthems in the pursuit of tolerance, respect and unity
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  3. 10.0 |   NME

    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
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  4. 10.0 |   DIY

    By far Killer Mike and El-P’s most accomplished chapter
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  5. 10.0 |   The FT

    The duo’s timely fourth album deploys booming basslines and dystopian imagery to confront the US’s oldest trauma
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  6. 10.0 |   The Observer

    Killer Mike and El-P have always traded dazzlingly intricate verses, all alliteration and propulsive rhymes, over inventive, nonlinear productions, and RTJ4 supersizes their outsider aesthetic without squandering any hard-won authenticity
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  7. 9.1 |   Consequence Of Sound

    Killer Mike and El-P craft a hard-hitting manifesto of boisterous anthems and fearless criticism
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  8. 9.0 |   Exclaim

    Mike's lyrical dedications to the downtrodden and disenfranchised throughout RTJ4 amount to a fitting soundtrack for this fractured moment.
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  9. 9.0 |   Slant Magazine

    Structurally inventive, lyrically deft, passionate and heartbroken, RTJ4 positions Run the Jewels as the laureates of our collapsing era
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  10. 9.0 |   Northern Transmissions

    Throw up your pistol and fist, puff out that chest and “Kill Your Masters” because Run The Jewels are giving you the soundtrack to fight the oppressors and the antidote to today’s unrelenting barrage of bullshit
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  11. 9.0 |   Clash

    ‘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
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  12. 9.0 |   All Music

    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
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  13. 9.0 |   Under The Radar

    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
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  14. 9.0 |   Albumism

    Finally, a proper soundtrack for a societal upheaval
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  15. 9.0 |   Sungenre

    RTJ4 should – it will – be remembered as both a modern American classic
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  16. 8.7 |   Paste Magazine

    The duo’s fourth album is the culmination of history, trauma and rage
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  17. 8.5 |   Spectrum Culture

    Rarely is art as incidentally tied to its moment in history as RTJ4 will inevitably be to the early summer of 2020
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  18. 8.3 |   Pitchfork

    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
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  19. 8.0 |   Evening Standard

    Political, pugilistic and horribly prescient — it’s the sound of now
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  20. 8.0 |   The Music

    Truly a record for its time and of its time
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  21. 8.0 |   Rolling Stone

    The agit-rap duo’s fourth LP was recorded before America was ignited in protest, but it still feels perfectly apt for 2020 America
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  22. 8.0 |   The Independent

    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
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  23. 8.0 |   Punk News

    There’s something - either eerie, tragic, or overdue - about how cleanly the moment RTJ4 arrives in resonates with the world Run the Jewels has been trying to tell you you already live in
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  24. 8.0 |   musicOMH

    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
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  25. 8.0 |   Loud And Quiet

    The album’s delivery oozes defiance, its widescreen beats knocking you for six while letting you know exactly how it is
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  26. 8.0 |   PopMatters

    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
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  27. 7.8 |   Beats Per Minute

    It’s the soundtrack to every state and every country’s protests, thus solidifying it as another time capsule of 2020
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