Talk to Me’ is Run the Jewels’ release for this year’s Adult Swim Singles and is, according to EI-P, the first single from the long-anticipated third album, RTJ3.
Apart from last year’s Adult Swim single and their collab with DJ Shadow earlier this year, the duo have been relatively quiet (let’s face it guys, Meow the Jewels doesn’t really count).
‘Talk to Me’ is pretty dissimilar from anything on their last album, RTJ2, and is actually more reminiscent of their DJ Shadow collab ‘Nobody Speak’.
Yes, Killer Mike and El-P’s super-human rap skills are still on-point and the beat could raise the dead, but there is something different about this track.
It is ferocious and snarling, but no more so than I have come to expect from Run the Jewels. It feels like they are holding something back.
If you think about it, ‘Talk to Me’ is really just the vanguard for RTJ3. Killer Mike and El-P have not brought out the big guns just yet because they do not have to. Fans have been waiting long enough that the duo don’t have to grab their attention: they know they already have it.
I don’t expect ‘Talk to Me’ to be the highlight of the forthcoming album, it is just a foreshadowing. Sure, it is a great song, but I am expecting greater things to come.