On RTJ2, El-P and Killer Mike, a.k.a. Run the Jewels, show that just because your tracks are bouncin’ doesn’t mean your rhymes can’t be heavy and hard. It’s heartening and electrifying to hear a couple of guys going all in on actual rapping even though they could have just relied on El-P’s production and a record full of dick jokes to net reliable festival hits. This is 40 minutes of brutal battle raps and a sick sense of humor that is revealed through epiphanic rhyme skills. The pair seems intent on making sure that every single line is worth quoting on your Twitter feed and memorizing to impress your friends. Not since Aesop Rock’s “Save Yourself” has a rapper going double-time (El-P on “Lie, Cheat, Steal”) inspired so much adrenaline. And that’s just one of the four different times that one song jumps the tracks, transforming into an entirely different beast. Are they showing off? Of course they are. You would too if you were having this much fun.

Speaking of fun, I could write 2,000 words on Zach de la Rocha’s guest spot on “Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck).” Like many of the other special effects on the record (Pac-Man’s rattle on “Early,” all the filthy fantasies on “Love Again”) de la Rocha’s (now) rarely heard voice is a visceral, juvenile thrill. Over a Lazerfaced interpretation of the beat from “A Milli,” Zach aims straight for old-school pleasure centers, making obvious references to Miles Davis (“I’m miles ahead of you, you can suck my bitches’ brew.”) and Rakim (“You can check-check my melody,”) and ending by raging—only a little bit—with a socially conscious couplet, “The only thing that closes quicker than our caskets be the factories.”

The guiding force of the Run the Jewels project is undeniably El-P. His production aesthetic sets the rules, and he bats clean-up on most tracks with his calmly assertive presence. On the album opener, “Jeopardy,” El-P lets Killer Mike rap for more than two minutes before modestly introducing himself with “I’ve never been much of shit, by most measurements don’t exist.” That humility doesn’t last though. It’s soon replaced by a detached, hard-earned arrogance. El-P just barely raises his voice for the song’s climactic line: “I been here making raw shit and never asked to be lauded. Run the Jewels is the answer, your question is ‘what’s poppin’?”’ Drop the mic, exit stage left.