RTJ has continued to rise to the occasion and deliver galvanizing political rap that is equal parts menace and message.

Be a Part of the Dream.

(Photos: Michael Patrick Perry) Some cities put athlete spectators up on the jumbotron but in Portland, Oregon, we get Carrie Brownstein, of Sleater-Kinney fame, up there at the Blazers games. Brownstein sightings around town occur at the hippest events: a Savages concert, on a “Portlandia” shoot. Run the Jewels, the excellent collaboration between rappers El-P and Killer Mike, not only …

[xrr rating=4.5/5]People love to categorize El-P’s production style as “cinematic,” but apparently no one told him that, in movies, sequels tend to be rehashes, mild variations of form that simply bilk another few bucks out of fans who would have been happier just revisiting the original. Run the Jewels 2 isn’t a break from last year’s surprise hit, but it …

(Photos: Matthew Stanley) When we imagine the private lives of rappers we think of bouncing cars with golden rims, wads of cash spread out like discarded fast food detritus and girls oozing sexuality, equipped with thongs, busting out all over the place. Although the excess of the rap game may have ebbed in recent years, we need to look away …

[xrr rating=4.25/5]“Niggas will perish in Paris/ Niggas is nothing but parrots,” Killer Mike blasts on Run the Jewels’ “Sea Legs”, a concerted jab at the self-proclaimed kings of hip-hop — Jay-Z and Kanye West. The line is so much more than a weak aural jab; Killer Mike and fellow rapper/producer El-P (known collectively as Run the Jewels) are taking the …

25) M.I.A. – “Bad Girls” [Interscope] Originally released by M.I.A. as a 2:13 worldbeat experiment on 2010’s Vicki Leekx mixtape, the extended edit of “Bad Girls” blends the jovial tenacity of the younger performer with the alternative pop sheen the songstress has cultivated in the interim 13 months. True, the song centers on M.I.A. getting banged in the front seat …

(Photos: Edwina Hay) I suppose Portland’s reputation for apathetic audiences has traveled. In a town where skinny hipsters would rather cross their arms, clutch their PBRs or yawn behind waxed mustaches than rock out at a show, the packed crowd who came out to see Brooklyn’s El-P and Atlanta’s Killer Mike at the Hawthorne Theater defied this stereotype. “This is …

[xrr rating=3.5/5]In May 2009, Definitive Jux founder and cornerstone of independent hip-hop El-P suffered what could only be described as an apocalyptic hard drive crash. Having lost almost an entire year’s work of production for the follow-up to his critically acclaimed 2007 album I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead, El put his energy into mixing what would become the final releases …

[xrr rating=4.0/5]Atlanta’s Killer Mike is living proof one verse can make a career. First rising to prominence in 2001 after stealing the show on Outkast’s “The Whole World,” where his 6/8 flow outshined both Big Boi and Andre 3000 at the height of their powers, it put the young ATLien on the map. After a minor hit in 2003’s “A.D.I.D.A.S.,” …