The new one is grittier/darker with serious/better lyricism, which is closer to El's solo style than their other stuff imo, but ja if there's any solo album that's easy to compare RTJ to it's C4C.

The way I see RTJ's trajectory is that they released the first album as a side project for fun, did RTJ2 as a victory lap, dropped RTJ3 to show that it's no longer just a side project, and doubled down on that with RTJ4 while moving away from a more playful sound into something more dedicated.

It's been a while, but I rememebr thinking RTJ3 was pretty gritty sounding. RTJ4 might be more "serious" oweing to it being somewhat more obviously political.

Your description of their timeline fits exactly with my interpretation of it. Although, (and perhaps this will change with time) I still find myself liking RTJ2 the most. To me, RTJ1 was basically their "Little Boy" - and RTJ2 was their "Fat Man".

I feel ya, I was mainly referring to the production which is a lot cleaner and less distorted than RTJ2 was.

And no dick jokes!

I don't think that they'd like being compared to atrocities but I see what you're getting at. I feel like you could frame 3 & 4 like this as well.

I can get behind that completely. The production on RTJ4 is probably the best I've heard from them.

Ha, I didn't notice that! Part of me feels like you must've missed it though - there's gotta be at least one. :laughing:

Yeah, perhaps not the most apt analogy, but all of their albums are explosive efforts to some degree.

RTJ is definitely one of my favorite rap duos of all time. They've got production like Outkast, they've got the class of EPMD, they've got the grittiness of Gang Starr, and they've got the style of Organized Konfusion.

I like Shabazz Palaces, Armand Hammer, and Outkast better but aside from that RTJ's definitely the best modern hip hop duo.

I don't know if I've ever heard of Armand Hammer, I'll have to check them out.

I've honestly become disillusioned with a lot of modern hip-hop. Maybe I'm just not listening to the right stuff, but I get this feeling that a lot of the same ideas are just getting retread.

My all time favorite hip-hop album is Tribe's Low End Theory. A lot of that golden age '90s hip-hop is near and dear. I rarely find hip-hop that gives me the same feelings that something like this does.



It's also a joy when I find new stuff that samples old school hip-hop or reworks it completely.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUIrolORx6M



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwfxTmRDS5I
this was a slapper too^

Annie Ross (1930 - 2020)



with Count Basie (piano), Freddie Green (guitar), Ed Jones (bass), and Sonny Payne (drums)