El-P and Killer Mike release their fourth collaborative effort under the name Run the Jewels, which is always welcome.
It's a fresh effort, full of quotable lines, great bars from the two MCs, in particular an inspired Killer Mike and several tributes to Ghost & Rae throughout this powerful and seemingly political record: listeners have stopped to the only "Walking in the Snow" — excellent cut and best one of this edition, focused on police brutality and released a few days after the murder of George Floyd — without going to explore the rest of the album, which is actually devoid of political charge whose hype deceives you.
There are political lines scattered by the two rappers, but, except "Ju$t", which is the next song, no other choice can be defined as political in its typical sense: the whole disk contemplates the simple thug braggadocio with which Meline & Render have been entertaining audiences for the past seven years. El-P's production is fresh, but no longer innovative, it's his usual danceable mix of boom bap and EDM, there's good intricate lyricism, good crisp and smooth rapping, but nothing memorable, everything is average, it flows off like water, tasteless, colorless. A famous reviewer had a precise rating for this type of album: «may impress once or twice with consistent craft or an arresting track or two. Then it won't.»
Highlights: "Yankee and the Brave (Ep. 4)", "Walking in the Snow", "A Few Words for the Firing Squad (Radiation)".
Rating: 7.5/10.
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