Internet browsing is what first introduced me to RTJ—Killer Mike was an earlier music celebrity to support basic social-democratic policies. That led me from "Reagan" to "2100" and recently to "Ooh La La". I've got dozens of plays on these because of how fun they are. Part of the fun is how plunky they are. I was afraid RTJ4 would be plunky cover to cover. And it often is! But after the nth listen through I stopped caring so much; clearly it's just my own bias.
RTJ4 is real good. The themes and songs tie into each other making the album more than a sum of the parts. You've got everything from school-to-prison pipeline and police brutality to comparing social writers and denouncing performative twitter.
"walking in the snow" into "JU$T" absolutely rips. Gangsta Boo, Pharrell, and Rocha's parts are great both in cadence and lyric. I guess RAtM has always been pretty on-the-nose too; more reason to drop the bias. RTJ's lines here sound prophetic to the (literal) current day, but isn't that the point? It's not prophecy, it's continuation.
The foreboding beat with overlaid sax in "firing squad" make for a captivating end to the album. Tagging it with Yankee and the Brave is cute too.
It's interesting hearing two protest albums back to back in RC. They're both very good, both speaking from somewhere deeper, 50 years and thousands of miles apart.
4/5
ps Remember to always keep your compressors, air tools, and avtomat kalashnikovas well-oiled
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