‘Meow The Jewels’ is a collab-packed reworking of Killer Mike and El-P's ‘RTJ 2’ album, with the profits donated to the families of victims of police brutality, Michael Brown and Eric Garner and related charities. The record samples a call-sheet of furry friends, including Lil Bub, a New York-based cat who has nearly a million Instagram followers and is listed ahead of Snoop Dogg in the credits for opener ‘Meowpurrdy’. There’s also an impressive raft of humans involved, with Geoff Barrow, Blood Diamonds, Dan The Automator and Zola Jesus, among others, all offering contributions.
So what may have started life as a joke is in fact as far from a novelty as the rest of the Atlanta rap politicos' catalogue. The feline voices here aren’t just tacked on as an addendum to El-P’s thunderous, galactic production. Instead, they’re organically woven through the tracks. Synth stabs are replaced by shrieking feline yelps on ‘All Meow Life’, remixed by New York electronic whizz Nick Hook. Amityville producer Prince Paul – who helped introduce comedy sketches to hip-hop on De La Soul’s 1989 debut '3 Feet High And Rising' – weaves dark, moody cat-calling through ‘Lie Cheat, Meow’. On ‘Pawfluffer Night’, Zola Jesus creates a funky Miami bass sound from the looped squeals of a frightened-sounding puss.
At the album’s core sits Killer Mike’s socially conscious verse, with lines like, ”They’ll watch you walk to the store they’re recording/But didn’t record a cop when he shot no warning” mixing grim reality with artistic surrealism. The incendiary reference to the “Anarchist’s Cookbook” on the Zack De La Rocha-featuring ‘Close Your Eyes and Meow To Fluff’ – remixed here by Geoff Barrow – sounds even weightier against the fluffy stars that surround it.
You can’t deny that cats run the internet and, whether or not you think this is all a bit puerile, ’Meow The Jewels’ has notched up over $65k for charity so far, which is obviously a good thing. That the record rules, too, is a nice bonus.
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http://www.nme.com/reviews/run-the-jewels/16274
