November 11th is a big day for releases this year and I, for one, am pretty damn excited for the Run the Jewels drop RTJCU4TRO. I’ve read a few promotionals advertising it as just a continuation of RTJ4, but it’s legit so much more than that, as we can read straight from the source on the RTJ website (runthejewels.com) “it’s a reimagining of RTJ4 through the lens of collaboration and a fusing of numerous musical cultures and influences…”

Reimagine, indeed. It’s collabing all the really cool things we hear in Latinx indigenous and reggaeton-type beats while maintaining integrity to the initial RTJ4. The fusion can be a bit of a mind trip if you overthink it. I struggled initially with “ooh lala (feat. Santa Fe Klan)” as the we’re taken on an augmented, almost major key journey with it, which is suggestive for some divergence of the underlying darkness of the RTJ4 version of the track, initially sampling from Gangstarr’s “DWYCK.”

I went back and watched the music video for it and remembered that there is a lot of tongue in cheek imagery presented as we watch hundies and more get lit up in the street to the dancing gusto of organized and diverse groups of folx coming together to watch the foundation of greed and establishment burn. We see all the fundamentals of chaos between the fire and the choppers in the background, but we also see beautiful hovering hot air balloons and the most adorable Killer Mike smile as he embraces El-P momentarily and shrugs, “No matter what ya order, mo’fucka, we’re what ya stuck with.” If you think of it in that context, the collab of a new sound for that track actually makes a ton of sense and is fun listening irony.

We do see some usual suspects back for familiarity, like, Zack de la Rocha, who has been lifelong heavily influenced by his own Mexican heritage, and hear from other Latinx artists, such as Santa Fe Klan, Baco Exu do Blues, Akapellah, and several others too deep to name drop.

Design-wise, the cover follows the traditional Run the Jewels likeness of the hand sign, yet in a paired down stylistically native fashion, surrounded by a basic loop chain in the background. The vinyl appears to be a black 2-disc set, with the CD offset with a yellow label. It looks cool, and for the RTJ die-hards out there, a brand-new logo tribal tattoo might be in order.

I recommend the lower back.

Kidding, I’m kidding. I’m telling you, though, die-hard or not, if you enjoyed RTJ4 and can appreciate the diversity and creativity of marrying an obvious hip-hop album with a lot of strong Latinx presence, this is one for your collection.

PS. This is really off-topic and potentially a bit late, but who knew about the RTJ-Aqua Teen Hunger Force theme song collab? I didn’t and if you don’t, go google it. (The new ATHF movie hits November 8th.)

@siliconeandvinyl