My iTunes tells me I listened to the first, self titled album by Run The Jewels more than any other new hip-hop record in 2013. That means in part and the entire way though. Listening to the whole affair from front to back is easy; for one, it’s an incredibly catchy record, and for another it’s pretty brief, barely clocking in over half an hour. That it never overstays its welcome is one of the many strengths of Run The Jewels, but mostly it’s just a nonstop caravan of some of El’s most neck-snapping beats. As adrenalized as the first half of Cancer 4 Cure is, Run The Jewels is more so. Incredibly, El and Mike prove more than up to the challenge of overpowering El’s beats. Their chemistry together is palpable, and their verses seem to push one another to greater heights. And depths as well — the content here is, as Mike puts it on “Job Well Done,” “So motherfucking grimy, so motherfucking greedy, gritty.” Mike’s sensitivity and El’s paranoia are both jettisoned in favor of an almost juvenile celebration of petty criminality. From most other emcees, the content would come across as absolute bullshit, but their delivery sells the damn thing. Think of it this way: Big Boi of Outkast takes a guest verse on “Banana Clipper,” and it’s one of the low points on the album. In the context of Run The Jewels, I would rather hear more of El and Mike roughhousing than hear a member of Outkast spit to an El-P beat. The album would have a serious claim as El’s pinnacle if it took itself a little more seriously — and if it skipped the irritating Prince Paul/’Chest Rockwell’ skit near the end. That said, it’s still required listening, if only for the queasy rhyme scheme in the chorus of “Sea Legs.”