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Run The Jewels - RTJ 2 (ALBUM) | FIRST REACTION
🕑 Added 2025-05-25 14:30:02 +0000 UTCTimestamps:
Jeopardy - 02:34
Oh My Darling Don't Cry - 07:04
Blockbuster Night, Pt. 1 - 09:58
Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck) (Ft. Zack de la Rocha) - 16:07
All My Life - 24:54
Lie, Cheat, Steal - 28:06
Early (Ft. BOOTS) - 34:41
All Due Respect (Ft. Travis Barker) - 39:02
Love Again (Akinyele Back) (Ft. Gangsta Boo) - 43:28
Crown (Ft. Diane Coffee) - 45:56
Angel Duster - 49:04
Blockbuster Night, Pt. 2 (Ft. Despot & Wiki) - 53:15
Comments
Connor VDL
JPEG is hella inspired by El-P especially his early work. You can hear the influence if you go back and listen.
Dominic Sutherland
Rtj 3
Ryan
RTJ 3 is my favorite but 4 is very good.
Ryan
You should definitely check out one of El-Ps solo albums. Cancer 4 Cure or I'll sleep when you're dead.
Antonio
RE: JPEGMAFIA subject matter being separate He DEFINITELY has overlap with RTJ. Dude has a song called I Just Killed A Cop Now I’m Horny lol. He used to call himself a “Left Wing Hades,” a lot of his earlier albums are a lot more overtly political. They definitely align politically. But fans of both constantly criticize their real life actions for being contradictory to their radical lyrics.
seventhrib
great reaction! You asked something like "What's the point" about the RTJ project in general: my interpretation is that the revolutionary messaging is not a "call to action", it's really just their swagger. Their "mythic" quality as rappers isn't based on their own wealth or status but on a rejection of authority along with love and solidarity towards ordinary folk (and each other). All the playful elements sit directly alongside the "no gods, no masters" rhetoric, it's all part of the same vibe. Much more about their own personality, outlook and philosophy than about attempting a real political intervention. This one is my favourite of theirs - blew my head off when I first heard it. RTJ3 is their weakest imo but still a lot of bangers
Zyshawn Moore
Fantastic Album
Gaurav U
Appreciate you guys checking out RTJII!! this is great. Ab Soul just dropped too
Helix
Ab-Soul dropped a diss i think, i havent listened yet but it's set as "shots fired" so i think it's joey related
mattmattburr
LOX redbull spiral
Brad
RTJ4 definitely my personal favorite can’t wait for you to get to it
TreDoes
RTJ 3 is my favorite and their most personal imo
TreDoes
Hope yakl get to some EL-P solo albums
Gabriel Aguilar
Reactions for 3 and 4 will be good, but MEOW The Jewels will be legendary!
Dustin
Regarding the group name and cover art, they’ve said in an interview that they got the name “Run the Jewels” from a line in LL Cool J’s song “Cheesy Rat Blues”. And the cover for the first album was just supposed to be a grimy drawing representing the group name, but people at their live shows just started holding up their hands to make a fist and gun like the cover. So the hands accidentally became something like the group’s mascot and every album has a different variation of the hands. Also, the fourth album was remixed too but this time it was with artists from Latin America instead of cat sounds (it’s called CU4TRO). And the cat sounds thing really did start as a joke. RTJ releases every album for free on their website and when RTJ2 was announced there was a site that listed a bunch of bundles for people who wanted to buy a vinyl, CD, shirt, etc. but the site also had a bunch of fake bundles and stretch goals with absurd prices. Like there was one where the two of them would come pick you up from school in a van and then you’d drive around with them solving mysteries. The cat sounds remix was $40k and the site had fine print saying they wouldn’t be required to fulfill any of the wacky perks. But someone started a kickstarter and raised $60k for the cat album so RTJ agreed to actually make the album. And the money all went to charity.
Colby
Rtj3 is my favorite
Caleb Washington
Shout out to Zack de la Rocha from Rage against the Machines....another dope group whom you might recognize especially the iconic song "Wake Up" at the end credits of the first Matrix movie
FigLeaf Bicarbonate
The best thing about RTJ is the juxtaposition of Killer Mike and El-P, Mike is more aggressive and punches are more direct whereas El-P is more coded and technical. Perfect match up.
NeillBS
I know you (or your editors) gotta edit shit down, skipping over some El-P verses wasn't a good idea to skip in my opinion, maybe skip some of the courses instead. Otherwise great reaction, RTJ is great you need to get to the oiher ones soon I hope :)
SAM-WISE GAMGEE
Ohhhhh and you definitely need to go back and watch Big Quints reactions to RTJ1 and 2 if you haven’t already.
SAM-WISE GAMGEE
Oh, and the story Killer Mike tells in Early isn’t a true story. I think they wrote it in response to Trayvon Martin, but basically they heard the news about one of those situations early in the morning on the way to the studio and made that song in response
SAM-WISE GAMGEE
Alright I was on the road when yall dropped this so here’s some answers to yalls questions. I’ll probably think of more stuff once I rewatch the react and will add as a reply to this comment. 1. Of course I know about Meow the Jewels. But the normal album had yall stunlocked. If I suggested meow the jewels yall would never listen to the other albums. 2. Every album gets better skill wise. My favorite is this one or RTJ3. Goes back and forth for me. 3. D, you ain’t really missing much. El-P was an underground legend before RTJ. He was in a group called Company Flow, ran a moderately successful label called Def Jux which had artists like Aesop Rock. El-P and Mike first met through a mutual friend that worked for Adult Swim which led to El-P producing Killer Mikes album R.A.P. music. Mike loved working with El so much they started RTJ. 4. The last track on this album is Angel Duster. Blockbuster Night Pt 2 is a bonus track that was just officially released recently on the 10 year anniversary or something. 5. El-P does all the production. Fun fact he was approached to do the soundtrack for Bladerunner 2049 but ended up not getting it. He released the tracks he put together for it though. 6. Now that you’ve heard RTJ2 you can now watch these amazing videos. The Megamix: https://youtu.be/Pa92U624BzA?si=a2XUc1UgXPcRmaAu And TrackStar the DJs rtj2 remix. https://youtu.be/SDSIBqqaIJc?si=pSZtcCjjlL5XJg2R TrackStar is their DJ on tour. Fun fact the feature on Close Your Eyes is Zach De La Rocha from Rage Against the Machine. He has a feature on most of their albums. And yall heard Rage Against the Machine in a previous vibe sesh or something when Darae was looking at them like “which one of them just said the word” thinking they were all white. Some of my favorite bars and lines that yall didn’t catch are: El-P’s “I’ve been a better bad guy than I’ve been better than bad” Also “better of dead like Paul is, your name don’t ring go starless” Paul is dead is a internet conspiracy that Paul McCartney actually died a long time ago and Ringo Starr was one of the less famous Beatles. Fun facts for the next couple albums: RTJ3 got a surprise early drop on Christmas the year it came out and RTJ4 got an early drop during the peak of BLM. 6. Love Again is really as straight forward as it sounds. It’s just about two consenting adults who love sex just as much as the other one. It’s their response to how rappers always gotta have the softer love song on the album. Like Kendrick’s Poetic Justice or Cole’s GOMD. But this is the RTJ version … which relates back to another El-P verse While other rappers are vaginas for the fame, the jewel runners will always stay rude Motherfuck your permission, was never yours to begin with And every bar of the bitch shit you spit is your fuckin' prison
Joel Sipp
Can't wait for RTJ3 and 4 reactions
Marquis
Mike burning Desire next!
Benchytos
FINALLY WE'VE SEEN THE LIGHT BOYS 🗣🗣🗣
Joel Sipp
FINALLY! RTJ is my favorite duo, I'm so glad you are finally reacting to them. Pay attention to *when* RTJ 4 came out, when you get to that reaction
Jack N. Goff
Having ZDLR in Close Your Eyes is appropriate. He was frontman for the rock band Rage Against the Machine who are/were highly political
Jack N. Goff
If these comments ain’t inspo to get to RTJ3&4 😂
Carlos
First listen is crazy! W
Jakob Blom
Soundscape of the first two are raw asf, production really got more refined on the last two imo, so depends on what vibe you rock with
SAM-WISE GAMGEE
Let’s fuckin goooooooo.
Caleb Washington
I prayed for days like this!!! Finally!!!! Let's go!!!!!!!!
Dylan
They are one of the few groups/artists where every project is better than the last. Their album ranking is literally RTJ
Dylan
3 and 4 will get legendary reactions
Malcolm Hughes
EL-P is also the main producer
Brett
RTJ3
martin overengen
I'll be damned
Jakob Blom
ITS HAPPENED! Thank you blessing the day🫡
FigLeaf Bicarbonate
Same here
FigLeaf Bicarbonate
We here 🔥 I need that MARCBERG next 👀
mattmattburr
The 3rd one is my favourite
Trent
Nah wtf this is perfect timing, I got a road trip in 30 minutes
mattmattburr
NO FUCKING WAY ITS A MIRACLE
