‘Putting pistols in faces’.

El-P and Killer Mike have teamed up for a sequel to what was, for many, one of the finest rap albums of 2013. Aptly titled Run the Jewels 2, the album kicks off in a similar vein to the previous project, with a menacing bass line and notions of ÔÇÿputting pistols in faces’.

ÔÇÿBlockbuster Night Part 1′ is all barely controlled aggression, with El-P spitting some imaginative alliterative threats. Zach De La Rocha (Rage Against the Machine) guests on ÔÇÿClose Your Eyes (And Count to F**k)’, on which he is as suitably unchained asyou would expect on a song about inciting a prison riot. Things take a turn for the personal on the second half of the album, with tracks such as ÔÇÿEarly’, in which Mike plays the role of a live reporter of police brutality and El-P ends his verse with the powerful lines: ÔÇÿThey’ll watch you walk to the store they’re recording/But didn’t record a cop when he shot no warning’.

Killer Mike prays for redemption on late album highlight ÔÇÿCrown’, in which he delivers a brutally honest verse about his days of slinging cocaine to a pregnant woman. The only sour note on the whole album is ÔÇÿLove Again (Akinyele Back),’ which contains a chorus of ÔÇÿshe want that d**k in her mouth all day’, slightly out of place on a such a politically charged second half.

While it is easy to see how such an aggressive and pessimistic album could become a bit of a trudge, it never does. The album feels inclusive; you share the same anger and regret they possess. It helps that not one of the verses RTJ delivers is ever less than top notch, and the innovative beats consistently find El-P at the peak of his game over 20 years into his career, but this is one of the rare instances in which a sequel is better than the original.