Album Review: Run The Jewels - Run The Jewels

Beatmakers, even excellent beatmakers, rarely find themselves in the sort of form Brooklyn boy El-P is in right now. Last year he produced his own excellent Cancer For Cure and Killer Mike's R.A.P. Music. Run The Jewels is a continuation of the relationships forged there. Killer Mike, born half a world away in Atlanta, is the other half of Run The Jewels. They might as well have been next door neighbours.

Run The Jewels is some achievement. It's not just El-P's beats either. Killer Mike has sounded angrier in the past, and just last year he sounded more concerned about a police state coming to kick down his door, but he's never sounded as urgent. To “spit” was a verb once used for rappers. Here, it rings true for Mike. Every line is harsh, phlegm and saliva hurled in your face. El-P, two decades deep into a rap career, is – improbably – a much improved rapper. In the past he's dived too deeply into underwater, inside-out pop politics and psychedelic science fiction. On Run The Jewels, El – like Mike – is spitting, and not so caught up in his own thoughts that he's forgotten what a microphone is for. The title track and album opener deserves the attention it's received. But for us, the back and forth on Banana Clipper (where our hosts make Big Boi's guest appearance seem an irrelevance) and the majesty of No Come Down take the cake.

Free. Thirty-three minutes long. And it was made just for fun. This is bangers end-to-end and brutal delivery from a pair whose collaboration surprised most of us. With hindsight it now seems so obvious. No further questions. Get this.