It’s a Christmas motherfucking miracle. Run the Jewels dropped their third album in the dead of night on Christmas morning, unwittingly instigating a nationwide upsurge in ruined Christmas dinners, blown iPad mini speakers, and monster trucks stolen from pissant second cousins. The fire-breathing duo of El-P and Killer Mike had scheduled the album for January 13 but leaked it last night; you can download it for free on their site, or stream it wherever you do that.
Since first linking up in 2012, they’ve made a habit of dropping an album per year: first two collaborative solo projects, then RTJ albums in 2013 and 2014, and finally last year’s weirdly involved Meow the Jewels remix project. It had seemed like 2016 would pass with only the release of single “Legend Has It,” but RTJ3 made it in before the bell rung. At 51 minutes, it’s their longest release yet, a dense, furious missive featuring Danny Brown, Zack de la Rocha, another gauntlet of punishingly terse El-P beats, and, of course, verse after verse of venomous invective. It’s the bracing smack in the face we all so richly deserved this Christmas morning.