I slept on RTJ at first. I'd seen the album on 2DopeBoyz, but I dismissed it as some shit I didn't need to hear. I knew Killer Mike from the Dungeon, and his track Swimming made my Singles of the Year mixtape in 2010. I would check his new stuff when it dropped. But EL? I didn't know shit about EL. I didn't see why Mike was working with him; I thought of him as some nerdy cornball rapper. My only experience with him was in college, when I found a bunch of the Def Jux stuff on the shared network. It wasn't my style. EL-P was some super back packer shit that I didn't know about, so I just skipped over RTJ when it dropped in Summer 2013. But my buddy Jerry put me up on it that winter, and damn, had I missed out. The mother fuckers were all thorn, no rose. Hard as fuck, raw. Make you wanna do dope, fuck hope - I actually bought the hoodie they made with that phrase on it, but I've always been kind of reluctant to wear it. I saw them live and the energy was ridiculous. There was a fucking mosh pit at their show. That was the only time I've ever seen people form a pit to some raps. RTJ2 was even better, and I listened to both of them on the regular for a while. But somehow I didn't get into 3 as much. I know it's good, but I just never digested it fully - I only listened to it a handful of times. They kinda fell off my radar for a bit. Seasons change, time passes on, as the weeks become the months become the years...
So I'm recently on this kick of listening Statik Selektah. Really one of my favorite producers ever. I remember him on some of the Shady Aftermath G-Unit tapes back in 2003, with the "spell my name right" tapes; bumping them in my friend Shawn's shitbox Accord in Providence. I heard from him again with 1982, but I really got back into him when he collaborated with Bam Bam on Well Done. I liked Bronson from the Outdoorsmen stuff and Dr Lecter, but when Well Done came out for Thanksgiving 2011, that shit blew my mind. I loved his raps, but the beats. Terror Death Camp is still one of my favorite beats ever; Love Letter makes me smile so hard. His production on Jared Evan's Boom Bap and Blues - Sunday is another one of my all time favorites. Lucky 7 was incredible - this man has the most talent behind the boards, and he picks only the best rappers to be on his tapes. 8 continued the quality. Very few other artists come with the same consistency - I think Curren$y does too, which is a fitting segway, as Curren$y and Statik collaborated this year on Gran Turismo. Which was really the impetus for my recent revisit of all these old Statik albums.
Which brings me to the intersection of these two artists - "Put Jewels On It", off Statik's album 8.
This one has been on my playlist all summer. The "Who really run this/Violence might be necessary" sample is fantastic, but when he drops the P sample in at the end - thoro for real; doin' it past your delf, you way past your jurisdiction. P had just died earlier the year this came out. I can picture Statik leaned back smoking a blunt listening to Keep It Thoro, hearing "move on it, put jewels on it, who want it" and thinking like "You know what P, I will". And it's good he did, because both of them drop amazing verses.
The cadence and rhyme scheme El pulls off in these bars -
Put ’em up, runners run amok, gonna gun ’em up
Son ’em up, what a run of luck, I’m a ton of fun
Fuckers wanna run it up, stun a runner up
I’m a number 1, wake up with the sun, thinkin’ make a buck
What a clutch, every buck he touch getting crumpled up
Suck it up, fold the fuckers guts ’til he double up
I also love how he says "What an odd duck", and his line about the kid born to kill a king with his fists, put 'em up.
And then it's look at Mikey flow, look at Mikey go..
Fuck your coulda shoulda woulda stooda stutter
I’m a mother-fucker, ask your baby mother, mother fucker
with this later...
flapjack flat flapback black flow flipper flap flap
A unique cadence that is just so nice to my ears.
I also love how they refer to each other as Mike and Jamie instead of their rap names, like they're just good ol' buddies rappin' together. Mike ends it with "I only trust Jamie I don't trust nobody"...besties for real.
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