Run the Jewels Announce New Album RTJ3, Share New Track “Legend Has It”: Listen

Run the Jewels have finally announced the full details of their highly anticipated new studio album, RTJ3. The follow-up to RTJ2 (Pitchfork’s number one album of 2014) is out January 13 digitally worldwide, with the North American physical release set for January 13 and the international physical release set for January 20. The self-released album will be available as a free download as well as on CD and LP (in partnership with distributor RED Distribution). Find the new track “Legend Has It”—produced by El-P and co-produced by Little Shalimar & Wilder Zoby—below. (It features a censored version of El’s teased “unicorn horn for a cock” line.)

The album features Danny Brown, Kamasi Washington, TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe, Trina, Boots, and more. It features the previously released songs “Talk to Me,” “Panther Like a Panther (I’m the Shit),” and “2100.” Find the full tracklist below, as well as the album cover.

Timothy Saccenti, Run the Jewels’ frequent artistic collaborator, shared a statement about how the new album’s artwork fits in the trilogy of covers. It depicts the RTJ logo as “a sculpture of the hands cast in metal, chromed, and gold-plated”:

For us, the RTJ1 hands were about “taking what’s yours”—your world, your life, your attitude. The RTJ2 hands were wrapped in bandages, signifying injury and healing, which for us represented the growth in ideas and tone of that album. For RTJ3 the bandages are off, the chain is gone and the hands have been transformed into gold. For us this represents the idea that there is nothing to take that exists outside of yourself. You are the jewel.

 

Run the Jewels 3:

01 Down [ft. Joi Gilliam]
02 Talk to Me
03 Legend Has It
04 Call Ticketron
05 Hey Kids (Bumaye) [ft. Danny Brown]
06 Stay Gold
07 Don’t Get Captured
08 Thieves! (Screamed the Ghost) [ft. Tunde Adebimpe]
09 2100 [ft. Boots]
10 Panther Like a Panther (Miracle Mix) [ft. Danny Brown]
11 Everybody Stay Calm
12 Oh Mama
13 Thursday in the Danger Room [ft. Kamasi Washington]
14 Report to the Shareholders/Kill Your Masters

RTJ will head out on tour next year. Find the dates here.

Revisit Pitchfork’s feature “Run the Jewels: Last Rappers Standing,” and listen to our “In Sight Out” podcast with Mike and El.

Watch Killer Mike and El-P on an episode of Pitchfork.tv’s “Over/Under”:

via Sheldon Pearce