CD reviews: Run the Jewels

The incendiary chemistry between MC/producer El-P and Outkast associate Killer Mike continues on Run the Jewels 3, as the hip-hop veterans take a certain "devil ... with a bad toupee" to task over the course of their fiery state of the nation address.

Where contemporaries Kendrick Lamar and The Roots espouse similar themes over taut jazzy abstractions, a blunt-force trauma approach is employed here, with El-P’s bunker-busting production buttressing his associate’s stentorian roar on Talk to Me and over Call Ticketron’s thrilling double-time raps: a furiously righteous amalgam of social consciousness, outrageous braggadocio and gleeful virtuosity.

• Run The Jewels. Run The Jewels 3. Run The Jewels, inc. 

• Four and a half stars (out of five)

Single download: Hey Kids (Bumaye)
For those who like: Public Enemy, The Roots