10 Albums Where Hip Hop Got Real

You don't need to look very far to see the kind of world that was happening just a few years ago. In the midst of a deadly pandemic, the United States was also facing some pretty heinous crimes as well, dealing with racial profiling by law enforcement and people still getting shot by cops as the news stories were still breaking. The world seemed like it was on fire, and Run the Jewels gave us just the kind of protest record that we wanted to hear.

Even though this record came under a lot of fire at the time for Killer Mike using the line 'I can't breathe' so soon after the murder of George Floyd, that's just a footnote for what this album has to say about the state of the world, talking about how much people can be ostracized in the black community, with JU$T equating the big businesses to slave masters working off the backs of the poor with backing vocals from Zack de la Rocha from Rage Against the Machine.

This album isn't looking to just spew statistics at you for 40 minutes either, with Mike and El-P actually having a story to tell in between their bars, like El's complicated relationship with his family and friends, and how both men are able to stick together even when things seem pretty grim. There are even a few times where the guys can just have fun on songs like OOH La La, which is probably the closest thing to a party jam this record has. The world was getting ugly outside, but in here it's still a blast.