The Run The Jewels 2 anniversary lands today, October 24, 2026, twelve years after RTJ2 was released on October 24, 2014. This deep dive revisits the album honestly as a catalogue landmark, the record that turned a side project between Killer Mike and El-P into one of the defining rap acts of the following decade.
RTJ2 was the duo second studio album, released through Mass Appeal and RBC Records, produced by El-P and Killer Mike with Little Shalimar. It arrived one year after their self titled debut and one year after Killer Mike R.A.P. Music, the 2012 album El-P produced that first proved how well the pairing worked. What the debut promised, RTJ2 delivered at full scale.
Run The Jewels 2 anniversary, the album in full
The RTJ2 tracklist runs 11 songs, and the sequence still reads as a statement of intent: Jeopardy, Oh My Darling Dont Cry, Blockbuster Night Part 1, Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck) featuring Zack de la Rocha, All My Life, Lie Cheat Steal, Early featuring BOOTS, All Due Respect featuring Travis Barker, Love Again (Akinyele Back), Crown featuring Diane Coffee, and Angel Duster. Few rap albums of the decade pack that much range, political writing, humour, grief and pure velocity, into that little space.
The guest list was chosen for friction rather than reach. Zack de la Rocha, then years removed from Rage Against the Machine, delivered a verse that became one of the most talked about rap appearances of 2014. Travis Barker drummed on All Due Respect. BOOTS, then best known for work with Beyonce, sang on Early and Crown era material. Gangsta Boo appeared on Love Again, a contribution Killer Mike has singled out in anniversary reflections, along with the late keyboardist Ikey Owens.
The anniversary detail most fans never heard
When the album marked its tenth anniversary, Killer Mike used the occasion to reveal a piece of its recording history, the role of The Alchemist and his studio. Parts of RTJ2 were recorded at The Alchemist studio, and Mike described meeting the producer father there, remembering his kindness and words of wisdom. Reflecting on what the record did for the duo, he wrote:
RTJ2 changed our lives, validated our artistry in ways that it had not in a long time, and built the foundation for one helluva run.
That validation was formal as well as personal. Stereogum and Pitchfork both named RTJ2 their album of the year for 2014, a rare agreement between two publications that seldom crown the same rap record. The duo that had formed almost as an experiment, after collaborating on R.A.P. Music in 2012 and joining forces formally in 2013, left 2014 with Grammy nominations, gold certified singles and mainstage festival slots in front of them.
Why RTJ2 still anchors the catalogue
Revisited twelve years on, three songs carry the album argument on their own. Oh My Darling Dont Cry, the second track, is the velocity record, circular synths and pitched up samples under two rappers trading momentum. Early is the conscience record, a Killer Mike verse about a father arrested in front of his family that remains one of the most precise pieces of writing either artist has released. Angel Duster, the closer, is the philosophy record, the duo stating their creed over a beat that keeps opening up.
The production is the other half of the legacy. El-P built RTJ2 from hard driving drums, agitated organs, dirty guitars and Detroit techno pressure, a sound that treated the Bomb Squad and Eric B. as starting points rather than museum pieces. It made the album feel physical in a way streaming era rap often does not, and it is why the record still works as a front to back listen rather than a playlist of singles.
The Run The Jewels 2 anniversary is not a sales story and the album is not being framed here as new. It is a date on the calendar that points back at a hinge point: October 24, 2014, when two veteran artists in their late thirties released the best album of their lives as a free spirited duo project, and the decade that followed, RTJ3, RTJ4, global touring and a permanent place in festival lineups, all traced back to these 11 songs.
