RUFFMERCY Presents: Run The Jewels - "Run The Jewels" (Fool's Gold Records)

Not since Bad Company boldly decided to go where no band had gone before, courageously naming their 1974 album Bad Company, which also included the song "Bad Company," has a band shown such a self-aware display of badass-ey; But with that said, Run the Jewels' self-titled FREE download album was easily one of the most righteous, skull-rattling Hip-Hop albums I've heard in years! While they're already animated enough in their own right, Killer Mike & El-P have now been properly cartoon-ified by Bristol-based director RUFFMERCY and animator Patch Keyes. "Run The Jewels" is just the latest in a recent string of surprisingly well-executed and unique visual accompaniments; for those of you who haven't had a chance to hear it yet, Run The Jewels (album) almost plays out like a buddy cop movie or Saturday morning cartoon and you can tell that these guys are best friends who are thoroughly enjoying what they're doing. "We're dating ourselves with it but one of my favorite turns of that phrase was LL Cool J on "Cheesy Rat" from Mama Said Knock You Out where he says "Throw ya hands in the air, wave them like you just don't care / Keep 'em there, run the jewels," El-P explained to SPIN during a pre-release interview. "Basically, it's just some tough sounding shit that can mean a lot. It encapsulates what Mike and I bond over, the era we love... It's probably the hardest shit you can possibly say." El-P & Killer Mike are currently holed up in the studio working on RTJ2, which should materialize by spring/summer, but Run The Jewels (1) is still available in a number of various formats: FREE download, deluxe European edition, and standard vinyl or CD packages.