[Reaper16]

05. Killer Mike & El-P – Run the Jewels







Last year, El-P released a killer solo album, Cancer 4 Cure. Last year, Killer Mike released R.A.P. Music, an album that would have been an easy #1 favorite if not for the unexpected quality of Kendrick Lamar and Death Grips. This year, they teamed up to release a free album. Run the Jewels is basically ten tracks of Killer Mike and El-P trying to out-rap each other. The beats are done by El-P and they are the bombastic, skitter, paranoid, heavy kind that he used on Cancer 4 Cure. On those beats, the two rappers say the craziest shit, boast the biggest boasts, and have plenty of fun. Sure, there’s some social commentary to be found on this album. “DDFH”, short for Do Dope **** Hope is 2013’s best rap song about 2013. It might be the best song about 2013, about contemporary life, of any genre this year. But mostly, this album is about insane bars. It’s about to rappers going hard. I mean HARD. Within the first minute of the album Killer Mike has already shot a poodle to death. It’s crazy. Admittedly, this isn’t as conceptually strong as Danny Brown’s Old. No album on this list is. I enjoy Run the Jewels more because of the consistency of production, and because this album is ****ing fun. I could just type that word over and over: funfunfunfunfunfunfunfunfun. This shit rules.