El-P (left) and Killer Mike of Run the Jewels.  Within just days of its release in June 2013, “Run the Jewels,” the self-titled debut from the team of Atlanta rapper Killer Mike and Brooklyn-based producer-lyricist El-P, already felt like the birth of a new franchise. Over hyperactive drum loops and murky electronic sound beds, the pair delivered the most unapologetically and often hilariously aggressive hip-hop album in recent memory, a grand showcase for their explosive “Odd Couple” meets “Lethal Weapon” chemistry. Released as a free download by indie label Fool’s Gold, the album reaped acclaim from fans and critics, assuring that Mike and El-P would be returning for more.  In that sense, “Run the Jewels 2,” released last month, doesn’t just represent the need to go “bigger” as sequels typically promise, though Mike and El-P admit that was partly their intention.  “You gotta have progression,” says El-P, who will perform with Killer Mike as Run the Jewels in a sold-out show at Paradise Rock Club on Friday. “All the great legacy rap groups that stuck around and really made a difference, you can always hear that they were creatively progressing, that they were expanding the scope of what they were doing and what they were saying. We knew going into our record that we wanted to make that kind of history if we could. We didn’t want to repeat the same sentiments, we wanted to expand on it while keeping the things that people loved about what RTJ was when we started.”  Mike echoes the sentiment more plainly: “We went into this knowing we had to blow people away.”  If you’re looking for comparisons, says El-P, look to “Empire Strikes Back” or “The Godfather, Part II”: While delivering the same caustic barrage of hardcore beats and rhymes as the original, “RTJ2” is intended as a darker, more expansive, and more emotionally powerful journey. Finding the right creative space in which to produce such results proved one of the key elements in the making of the album. Both members found two-week breaks in their busy schedules to meet somewhere, isolate themselves, and work on tracks, with sessions spread over several months recording in New York, Los Angeles, and Atlanta.  “We would just stop the world, take our time, go record, smoke, drink, live like pirates, fight a little, scrap a lot, and try and make the dopest record possible,” says Mike. “Maybe we’ll go record the third one in the desert, have a religious experience.”  “It’s not like we have to bare-knuckle brawl before we write our verses,” adds El-P. “Usually just some weed will help. It’s aggressive, but it’s not like this insane thing. We are basically just [expletive] talking, and that’s funny and fun. When we are in the room together, the music just brings it out of us.”  Those bruising punch lines and neck-snapping beats predictably supply many of “RTJ2” ’s many highlights, whether it’s Mike’s “top of the morning, my fist to your face is your [expletive] Folgers” or El-P suggesting rivals should run backward through a field of something (it’s not wheat) on “Oh My Darling Don’t Cry.”  But it’s the unexpectedly provocative moments on “Crown” and “Early” that show the progression both artists repeatedly stressed. On the former, Mike paints an unflinchingly dark and personal story recalling his life as a crack dealer who struggles with guilt and shame after selling drugs to a pregnant woman.  “I feel like a lot of times with El and I people can run behind ignorance and say, ‘It’s too smart for me’ or ‘It’s too hard to think about,’ ” Mike says. “I knew that if I did a narrative-based story when you had to meet a character, empathize with that character, and ride the story through, I could just touch people’s humanity in a different way than a soapbox-preaching type thing. I wanted people to understand that a lot of the outrage people hear in El and I’s music comes from a place of love and empathy and caring for greater humanity.”  The duo’s recent success is also a well-earned reward for many years of toiling as independent artists, which has given both members a healthy perspective. As seriously as they take their work, they don’t hold themselves as the last standing bastions of pure hip-hop. Mostly, they’re just having fun.  “Everything we do is not some ironic commentary on anything that isn’t us,” says El-P. “We aren’t running around saying we are the right way to make music. We do know that the vibe we are bringing is a good addition to the balance of everything that’s out there. This has always been part of hip-hop. It’s us harkening back to what made us love it.”
Run the Jewels, the critically acclaimed and popular duo of rappers El-P and Killer Mike, play the Paradise Rock Club on Friday to celebrate a new album that builds on the strengths of their debut.