One of my favorite albums ever. Fun fact, there’s a remix of this album called “meow the jewels” where all the beats are made up of cat noises! El-P is one of the most creative producers ever. I’d give some of his and Killer Mike’s solo music a try.

I will say one thing - Whenever Killer Mike or El-P discuss violence, it’s always towards authorities who have no care for the common people. They discuss it seriously, but with exaggeration as poetic device.

I noticed you mentioned o both videos how they don’t care about money, which is necessarily true. For those who don’t know every album they’ve dropped so far has been free to download. I feel that shows how passionate they are about their art and legacy

Can't wait to see you hear RTJ3 and RTJ4 soon man, their whole discography is so good.

This might be the greatest album to work out to ever lol

You're discovering the term "pockets" when talking about Killer Mike in Darling Don't Cry. Just because he attacks the verse with one cadence there are different ways to cut up the bar that compliment the "bounce"

Ever since I discovered RTJ they have been my favorite group and its not even close. 2 down and 2 albums to go - don't worry its all great!

What you're experiencing with Killer Mike is that hes a real rapper. Like Kendrick said, "If you really cared about rappin Killer Mike would be platinum". You're discrediting his lyricism because there is no overarching story or theme to the album. What Killer Mike is doing is lyricism. What youre describing as lyricism is content. You can be lyrical without content. Although Mike does both.

I love RTJ1 and RTJ2 and 4, but RTJ3 is my all time favorite. I love them all, but that third album is incredible IMO. Can’t wait for you to react to that one

I'm glad for you opening up and for speaking your mind on these things, espessially when the world's shit is fresh on your mind. This album really shows Mike and El-P's growth as friends and reflects that they started opening up more to eachother about these subjects. They've said that after the first album, which was a lot more just them having fun, this they realized the position they were in and decided to bring up more of these personal and political subjects. The next one is even more of a blend of really fun and really serious, but they do that sooooo well.

Some of EL-P's best production can be found on the Cannibal Ox ‎- "The Cold Vein" album. Worth a review.

I would love to see/hear your thoughts on Funcrusher Plus, Fantastic Damage, and The Cold Vein which is some of El-P's older and more abstract production

Classic Album... Probably my favourite out of the 4 albums...👌

Oh.. didn't think it'd be back to back, awesome. Can't wait to see your reaction to 'Close Your Eyes'.

Something interesting since I’ve made it to Blockbuster Night Pt 1. What’s been happening recently in regards to the shootings have been horrible and I appreciate that you care enough to feel the way you do but this has been happening in poor inner city communities for decades. Killer Mike is from Atlanta and is a political activist and I think it’s fair if you think Killer Mike shouldn’t be able to use that. However the feeling you’re feeling has been felt by poor and especially black communities for decades. This sounds harsh but white people start to care once it could possibly affect their circle. My thoughts are pretty jumbled so I apologize for that haha but I guess it’s a part of the culture because it simply is. There has been nothing done to stop it by the government and politicians. For years now I’ve seen discussions about this issue is that people just have to wait until it affects the white neighbourhoods for people to care which is quite harsh to say out loud. Not sure what I wanted to accomplish writing this but perhaps to help with the conversation and thoughts that you’re feeling at this time ❤️

You need to listen to Undun by the Roots! Incredible concept album with some of the greatest storytelling I’ve ever experienced.

I sincerely hope you while dive into El P (and his former group company flow) and especially Cannibal Ox - The cold vein (underground classic) which is fully produced by El P. It is earlier and he sounded way more apocalyptic and gritty as opposed to his RTJ production. It's like listening to a bladerunner dystopian future

I definitely see where your coming from. I definitely don’t think it’s the artist fault at all. People made the same case about violent video games, saying these games were normalizing these heinous things. But the fact is is that millions upon millions of people consume this art, and don’t do those things. These shootings that are happening in America have way less to do with the content, and more to do with the culture. People in countries all around the world listen to this music and play those video games, and have no where near the problem that America has. I see the problem that your country has with guns, and am astonished that it hasn’t been fixed already.

Can't wait for RtJ3 and 4. "So here's the plan you can't move forward and you can't move backwards"

Bobbob the 🐐 no 🧢

El-P has one of the most unique and distinct styles of production in all of hip-hop. Any time I see that he’s got a production credit on a song, I already know I’m in for a crazy listening experience.

Theirs a lot of gun reference in Killer Mike's verses because he is a member of the NRA. He's a strong advocate of the 2nd Amendment, but I believe he is also in favor of strict gun control and keeping guns away from people who shouldn't have them.

Once again here to stan for Bob to listen to The Impossible Kid by Aesop Rock

Angel duster is grown up lyricism, thats all it is. Excellent verses.

After the gangsta boo feature. We Need Chapter 2: World Domination. Mafia Mafia Ya Ya Mafia. Triple 6.

1:04:41 yes! I think I had seen that Killer Mike interview. I 100% remeber Kendrick "shouts him out" on Hood Politics, don't remember exactly what he says before but he then says "Killer Mike'd be platinum", I believe before that he says something related to how critics would want "real hip hop" to be brought back

El’s solo catalog next! Start w/ I’ll Sleep When Yr Dead, but all of it is simply incredible. I’ve been saying El is the best producer of all time since ‘05.

One of my fav albums ever and so happy you mess with RTJ Bob. El-P on another with the production and him and Mike are such unqiue and talented MC's. When is Doris happening again?

Just got this album on vinyl yesterday. Such a banger! So glad you are finally getting to check them out. I also got into hip hop after being a metal head for many years and was really drawn to RTJ. Can’t wait to see you react to RTJ3 and 4. Also, hope you get a chance to check out Clipping sometime. You were saying you think you’ve heard it all, but I promise you haven’t heard anything like his stuff.

You should def listen to The Cold Vein, all produced by El P with 2 of the best lyricists ever you could definitely go deep into their spiritual lyrics (not to say that they dont have a great sense of humor)

Can’t wait for RTJ 3 man

The a point is it’s a metaphor. They kill it on the mic. A comedian goes on stage and “kills” a rapper kills it on the mic.

Found the double header this is a blessing!!! I was hoping you would do both!!!!

On the topic of this music vs the real world... Their music is used in animated comics like Invincible and it works gloriously. If not music then video games. The difference between us and other civil countries is gun laws.

Fun fact: El-P made a remix album of RTJ2 where he replaced a lot of sound by cat’s meow. That’s called Meow The Jewels 😅

Tip toe on a track like a ballerina Ski mask in a Pontiac Catalina It’s obese female opera singer So you can run the jewels or lose your fingers One of my favorite lines. Perfection.

Can’t lie I was the most excited for this one

You've made my day wit the back to back rtj!

Killer Mike's Pledge Allegiance To The Grind series is 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥. At this point...I know what shit you're going to like. I know you mentioned you got Lupe on the list...you're really going to like his shit.

Completely love all the rants in this video, this is probably my favorite commentary from you in a video. Gangsta Boo stole the show on Love Again!!! She’s a member of Three 6 Mafia! El-P’s verse on Crown is great too. Also, El-P was featured on Billy Woods new album Aethiopes and its my favorite thing El-P has ever done. This is about to be a long comment btw When we talk about normalisation and love of gun culture in the US i think its more importantly idolizing the military that does damage. Like, sure the US had a good role in fighting Nazis (even though they bombed 200,000 Japanese people in the process and kept them in concentration camps here in the US, and sexually assaulted French women while liberating France then (trigger warning) claimed in response that it was only the Black soldiers who did that, and hung about 30 Black soldiers. Yeah, the us miltary did evil even during ww2). But on the whole, the US military just goes country to country leaving it in pieces, and when it isnt doing wars, its funding them by funding Saudi Arabia or Israel or any other murderous country. And when we’re taught to idolize all the unnecessary, ill-intentioned, devastating wars that we do, that’s a little more extreme than listening to music, watching movies, playing games, that are violent. As far as violence in art, i’m more neutral and could understand either perspective. Personally i’m only sometimes turned off by it, and i’ve gotten pretty tired of violence in movies specifically unless its really creative. I was just thinking of mentioning this when the Zack De La Rocha song came up, where it mentions killing police instead of eachother, and there’s some rappers now who, if they ever rap about violence, its only towards the police! Pink Siifu is a strong example of this. It tends to be that way in the type of scene that Earl Sweatshirt is in. Completely agree with what you’re saying about the type of people that often become police officers and the obsession with “bad guy”. Television is filled with pro-police propaganda and theres even a whole department of the government dedicated to making sure a positive image of the military is portrayed in movies. Marvel gets funding from the military for this. Continuing to listen, i completely agree with this whole rant about the police wanting violence to justify more tanks and all that. When you mentioned politicians saying weed laws target Black people but they dont do anything about it, yes. Republicans are shit and they hardly pretend to care because their lies are so obvious. Democrats will pretend to be the good person, saying more of the right things but theyre shit too. Like what just happened with abortion… democrats couldve made Roe Vs Wade CERTAIN to stay, i forgot the exact process but they could make it more engraved as an unchanging law. But democrats have been using abortion as a way to keep themselves in power. “If you dont vote for us, you’ll lose abortion rights!”. They dont care about actually improving things, they just care about having the power and getting the votes over the “stronger evil”. Like i always say, they’re both the same capitalist pro-police party. And representation in politics does nothing, thats just for more mind games too with whoever of the targetted groups, fits their corruption the most. Btw, Joe Biden sold a record amount of area in the Gulf Sea to fracking, with like 50 thousand acres or something. And btw, the Navy has been poisoning hundreds of thousands of Native Hawai’ians water for over a year through oil pollution from their base, and theyve done nothing about it. Figured i’d add some more things to this political comment and video. Love your point at the end about people not liking people to criticize their religion but then theyll think all other religions are fake

One of my favourite rap duos of all time and one of my favourite albums its so good.

its RUN THE JEWELS timeee lets go

My god... fantastic reaction. Nothin else to say there... One Love!

I don't blame you for being so apologetic throughout the experience and I can only speak for myself but I really enjoy your thoughtful and open minded active listening style. I hope you can find the confidence to be unwavering in your analysis. So far you seem to be a very rational, level headed dude so I feel like you'll be safe from the mobs lol. In respect to the record, RTJ are definitely a Supergroup. Both successful people in their own solo careers before these projects came out but RTJ has really taken on a life of its own. Although most of their songs on these first two records are mostly aimed towards being great beats with tons of quoteables and then a sprinkling of some politics (usually on the last track) I feel like on RTJ 3 and 4 they got more comfortable expressing themselves and their politics (an apt call back to your own struggles during this) and those messages they finally felt strong enough to share really resonated with people. There's a track on RTJ4 called Walking In the Snow that really hits Kendrick levels of powerful and people were listening to that record right around the time of the BLM protests following the murder of George Floyd and it felt like such a fitting narrative. Not to spoil anything, just seems like you're more into the conscious rappers and I think the next two RTJ records will begin to scratch that itch for you

Killer Mike's also featured on Outkast's Stankonia! We're probably six months to a year away from that but that's something to look forward to I guess lol

I get your sentiment on violence on videogames and lyrics, but people play Doom all over the world, and only America has a school shooting problem. The problem to me seems to be how easy it is to get guns there (from what I know, I'm from Spain)

I really love your reactions. They help me to relive my first time hearing these albums. I thought of this when you were discussing the gun lyrics (i love your perspective btw): Im a black dude from southern CA. In highschool ('07), I asked my asian music teacher if he thought music contributed to the violence that I saw in my life. His reply was something that I always remembered, "There are waaaay more songs about love than violence. If music was that influencial, everyone would be in love. You're watching art imitate life. Your favorite albums are audio movies" As someone who's seen alot of gun violence, I struggle with the same concept bro. I've resolved to just appreciate the artistic liberty.

I like all the RTJ albums but this one is the only one I keep in constant rotation. One of my favorites of all time for sure!

Also recommend the track "Kings and Queens" by DJ Shadow featuring Run the Jewels. One of my favorites

hell yeah, great fucking album. El-P is up there for most underrated producer ever, he should be in the conversation for best producers more but rarely does he get brought up. also, "Better off dead like Paul is // Your name don't Ring-go Starless" is one of my favorite bars of all time

The hardcore violent rap is called "gun bars". You don't have to be violent to use those bars they're just easy af to do and enjoyable.

It’s awesome that you are a new fan of RTJ! They are my favorite duo of the last decade. Killer Mike has been that dude since catching beats running like Randy Moss! Wait until you get to RTJ3 and 4. It’s almost unbelievable how much better their albums keep getting. It’s like how do elevate excellence? Put the Yankee and the Brave together!

you should check out their interviews together they're so wholesome together but also very wise men

You should check out Killer Mike’s speech post George Floyd too. That man raps about what he does very knowingly, he has his feet on the ground a lotta the time where he’s from though

Please do Funcrusher Plus by Company Flow. El-P was way ahead of his time as a producer all the way back then in ‘97. One of the all-time great underground hip-hop albums.

Well id say the point regarding the gun lines is that where a lot of hiphop artists grew up, something like the texas shooting which was horrible, was almost a weekly or daily occurrence. More of a thing normalized through circumstances growing up than being tongue and cheek Can understand your concern, though

This is one of your best reactions

Loved the topics Close Your Eyes brought up for you to talk about!! Anytime you get into politics or your worldview, I'm all for it!

OK you like EL-P and heavy lyricism? I have the perfect recommendation for you, Aesop Rocks album None Shall Pass. There was a study done about vocabulary In Hip Hop that shows he has the most lyrical diversity by a mile, weaving metaphor and simile his music is one of those rare gems that you get more out of the more you look into it.

Ok so, on your video for 36 chambers (Wu Tang) I suggested to listen to the Company flow album "Funcrusher plus", because just as the Wu album that was a turning point in the hip hop music. Well, surprise surprise, Company flow is the first EL P band, and yet his productions were innovative, trippy, fresh, and crazy AF. So once again my suggestion is: please listen to that album because worth... a lot. Especially to understand how EL P changed through the years, musically and lyrically. PS consider that it's a 1997 album

Hey Bob, this is my favorite album of all time and I would love to have a conversation with you about it. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this

Don't forget Meow The Jewels 😆 Meowpurrdy actually goes super hard, and is better than the original imho.

Defined American police perfectly, unfortunately 🤘 (Your commentary on "Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck)", I mean.)

Can’t wait to see you react to 4, my personal favourite.

Damn you got these up fast!

Can't wait till Bob retires and this becomes a drug channel

Man you were spitting facts during Close Your Eyes. If you don't already watch him, I think you'd enjoy Beau of the Fifth Column

I Need Bob to start listening to Action Bronson and please god start with Lamb Over Rice (All alchemist produced)

I know you do albums but you need to see the video for “close your eyes and count to fuck” extremely fitting in recent times

I'm longing for a rtj3 rtj4 double header tomorrow lol

In relation to Blockbuster Night 1..I completely agree with you. I'm enraged as well. And I just want to let you know as someone who Hip Hop has been their primary music choice for 20+ years, it's alright to say hip hop brings this stuff up more than other genres. I'm aware there are rock songs and pop songs that do the same, but hip hop has a lot more songs with it. However, when it comes to Run the Jewels, there's a lot that's metaphorical, and/or exacerbated. I don't doubt your heart is in the right place and I'm glad you're enraged...I am too. Just want to make sure you're understanding the full extent of the music..but I'm glad you're always coming to it with an honest point of view. It's fine to think things are harder to listen to after other wordly things happen..but try to remember where the rappers are coming from when they make that art. Anyway, love the channel will continue to watch.

Your rants are making this vid more interesting

As an OEF Army vet, El's verse in Crown fucking kills me inside.

If you enjoyed this you’d prolly enjoy Lil Ugly Mane. He’s an underground legend that makes music kinda similar to this with a bit more of a focus on lyrics and slightly less abrasive production. Similar rapping styles and topics. Would be cool to see a reaction to him eventually. Highly recommend “Mista Thug Isolation”

This is there best album imo & One of the best produced of the decade

Should I even mention "Meow the Jewels"? Not sure you're ready.

Me: "Run the Jewels 2?!???!? But what happened to listening to the first Run the Jewels album? Also me 5 minutes later after scrolling down my feed: "Oh."

The constant references to guns in music is emblematic of the culture of the United States. It is engrained in every media form and it has been exported around the world. Uk rap focuses heavily on guns as well, but their country doesn't have the same gun violence problems. I don't know if I have a coherent point, but media is often a reflection of society. Edit: just to add interpretation of media is based on the specific moment of time. Your examination of the music relating to the current feelings you have is extremely valid. Though I don't always agree, I quite enjoy it. Fantastic job.

Close Your Eyes is actually my alarm tone in the morning. Gets me hyped for the day everytime 😁

On your own time you’re going to want to dip in to El-P’s original catalog. He was part of Definitive Jux in the 90’s which was some of the best collection of alternative rap acts at the time. You’ll be able to see El’s evolution while being able to hear a more thought provoking side of him lyrically with a little more emotionality. “I‘ll Sleep When You’re Dead” is the best representation of him at that time IMO.

This one and RTJ 4 are my favorites

It slipped my mind that you reacted to this but I knew you would love this album.

I loved the Reaction Bob, sometimes the mind Just has It over don't torture yourself too much

Blade Runner has a HUGE influence on El-P production (his words). Just watch the movie and pay attention to the soundtrack, it will be clear. RIP Vangelis

Zack is the "third member" of rtj. El-P was actually supposed to produce a solo album for him that never came out after ratm broke up.

I appreciate you sharing the political opinions and being transparent with your current mindset re: the shooting. I don't necessarily agree with everything you said especially with art's possible influence on violence, but as a teacher, it's reassuring to just see other people viscerally upset about what's going on. I feel like thoughtful, nuanced discussions/reflections from people who really care is a massive tool for doing that over time. So thank you for this video, really love the content! Hoping we live in a safer place for everyone soon.

KEEP IT GOING!! It only gets better 🥵

Are you improving movies by having people fist fight instead of shooting or just removing violence altogether? Pass laws, talk to your kids. Identify and work through problems... Mental or otherwise. Listening to people talking shit for fun doesn't make it easier for an evil person to obtain weapons and kill people.

just gotta say that all of the rants you had were not as tiring as you think very based, i approve

the fact you enjoy this so much, you should absolutely listen to EL-P's Fantastic Damage and Cannibal Ox's The Cold Vein! theyre underground classics that have influenced everything from MF DOOM to Danny Brown, theyre incredible albums. the fact they also dropped 20 years ago and still sounds fresh and new is incredible, it would be a huge missed opportunity if you didn't try them at least once!

I think you would really like Public Enemy's "What You Gonna Do When the Grid Goes Down?" album.

I'll keep it short... you should do 3 and 4 on the same day too. Fuck the schedule; do them next week! gr. from Amsterdam

Hi Bob, just wanted to acknowledge the mention of the school shooting, just quickly searching "school shootings usa" there are about 4 school shootings in your country a month(wikipedia). Some might say it's due to mental health, but in Denmark the last school shooting was in 1994. And we have one of the highest prescriptions on anti-depressants. Just wanted to put that out there.

13:40 if that doesn't move your head I don't know what will.

Fuck yes!!!!! Holy shit!!!

Part 2 yuhh

hey love your thoughtful commentary with these 2 records, i think you'll absolutely love RTJ 3 and 4 cuz they are absolutely filled with great political messaging, killer mike and el-p p are great at it

Favorite RTJ album it holds such a special place in my heart

RTJ is hands down the most consistently good groups ever

oh fuck its here already hell yeah