R.A.P. Music is the fifth studio album by American rapper Killer Mike. It was released through Williams Street Records on May 15, 2012. The "R.A.P." in the album's title is a backronym for "Rebellious African People". Production was handled by rapper and producer Jaime "El-P" Meline; the album was the first collaboration between Killer Mike and El-P, who would later form the critically acclaimed duo Run the Jewels.

Music and lyrics In 2012, on NPR, Killer Mike explained his song "Reagan": "Ronald Reagan was an actor. He was a pitchman at first, and so people naturally trust him. He understood how to weave magic when he was speaking, and that's what we as entertainers do. So when Jay-Z tells you to buy some Reeboks, it means more. Ronald Reagan at one point was the biggest pitchman in the world. I think that Reagan was used by a political party, by people who had vested means, to push their own agendas."Killer Mike: On Ronald Reagan And Raising Daughters . June 19, 2012. NPR.

Reception Critical response

R.A.P. Music received widespread acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an weighted mean average score of 85, based on 27 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim". Among those who reviewed the album positively was AllMusic editor David Jeffries, who stated "rapper Killer Mike already had an incredibly strong discography before R.A.P. Music landed [...] Revolutionary stuff and absolutely no fluff, R.A.P. Music is outstanding." Evan Rytlewski of The A.V. Club praised the album's production and Mike's politically charged lyrics and wrote "[R.A.P. Music] feels like the culmination of his unusual career." Pitchfork'''s Ian Cohen designated it "Best New Music" and noted that "even if R.A.P. Music doesn't break enough rules or have enough of a platform to reach the levels of Fear of a Black Planet or Straight Outta Compton or Death Certificate . . . it does come off as the kind of powerful mid-career album those acts should've been able to make as hip-hop's elder spokesmen". Christopher Weingarten of Spin wrote: "A child of the '80s and a student of the Internet, Killer Mike is as exciting and wildly unclassifiable as hip-hop gets: New York noise and country shit, nods to when rap was punk and crunk was pop, Ice Cube before he needed hooks, David Banner before he needed to whisper, and Willie D before he needed anybody." Sputnikmusic staff Sobhi Youssef praised El-P's synth-bass-heavy production and Mike's lyricism, and praised the album as "a hip-hop masterpiece to be remembered for years to come".

In a less positive review, NME writer Henry Barnes stated that "Mike has dabbled with politics in the past, and even made unlikely forays into experimental soul, but R.A.P. Music'' lacks the fury and vitality that usually sustains him. The ambition is to be applauded, but half the album's a grind. And not the good kind."

Accolades Publication Accolade Rank AllMusic Best of 201215Beats per MinuteThe Top 50 Albums of 2012 23BrooklynVegan141 Best Albums of the 2010s 101 Chicago Tribune (Greg Kot) Top 10 Albums of 2012 4 Cokemachineglow Top 50 Albums 2012 9Complex The 50 Best Albums of 2012 32 Consequence of Sound Top 50 Albums of 2012 6 Crack Magazine The Top 100 Albums of 2012 66 Drowned in Sound Favourite Albums of 2012 18 Entertainment Weekly 10 Best Albums of 2012 6 Exclaim! Best Albums of 2012: Top 50 Albums of the Year 3 Gigwise Albums of the Year18 Gorilla vs. Bear Albums of 201211 Best Albums of 2012 39 No Ripcord Top 50 Albums Of 2012 32 NPR Music 50 Favorite Albums Of 2012 Unranked Paste The 50 Best Albums of 201229Pitchfork The Top 50 Albums of 201213 The 100 Best Albums of the Decade So Far (2010–14)70 PopMatters The 75 Best Albums of 20126 The Best Hip-Hop of 20121 Pretty Much Amazing Best Albums of 201216 Albums of the Year 2012 35 Rolling Stone 50 Best Albums of 2012 20 The 200 Greatest Hip-Hop Albums of All Time133 Spinner The 50 Best Albums of 2012 18 Spin 50 Best Albums of 2012 8 Stereogum Top 50 Albums of 2012 23 Time Top 10 Everything of 2012: Albums 10 Tiny Mix Tapes Favorite 50 Albums of 201243 Treble Top 50 Albums of 2012 9 The Village Voice Pazz & Jop8 Vulture Top Ten Albums of 20127The Wire 2012 Rewind: Releases of the Year27

Track listing All songs produced by El-P.

Personnel

Bun B – vocals Regina Davenport – production coordination Jason DeMarco – executive producer DJ Abilities – scratching El-P – engineer, producer, programming, vocals, composer Nicholas Howard – vocals Killer Mike – vocals, composer, executive producer G.G. McGee – lyric transcription Emily Panic – vocals Fahamu Pecou – paintings

Bradley Post – engineer Joey Raia – mixing Scar – vocals Glenn Schick – mastering Torbitt Schwartz – guitar Shanna Sheets – lyric transcription T.I. – vocals Trouble – vocals Trey Wadsworth – design Wilder Zoby – composer, co-producer

Charts + 2012 chart performance for R.A.P. Music Chart (2012) Peakposition + 2022 chart performance for R.A.P. Music Chart (2022) Peakposition

References