Run the Jewels rendered virtually all music publications’ year-end lists useless with the release of “Run the Jewels 3” on Christmas Day. This release marked the third album in four years for the hip-hop super-group, featuring Killer Mike and El-P.

“Run the Jewels 3” maintains the same contained fury that’s been consistent throughout the group’s discography. Killer Mike’s powerful, and often political, lyrics have found a new home under El-P’s production.

This combination legitimately deserves comparisons to the music Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre created in the ‘90s.

The prevailing opinion held that the most impressive lyricism was written by Killer Mike, although El-P’s variety of rhyme schemes and patterns forced fans to recognize El-P as Killer Mike’s equal.

After the third straight album with critical acclaim, it’s now time to think about Run the Jewels’ status as one of the possible best groups in rap history. While many groups in hip-hop are responsible for some historically great albums, their shelf-life is often only a couple albums long.

Mobb Deep and N.W.A are prime examples of hip-hop groups with one album above all their others. Not-so-coincidentally, Mobb Deep’s “The Infamous” and N.W.A’s “Straight Outta Compton” are each group’s first project.

Run the Jewels’ first album (aptly named “Run the Jewels”), on the other hand, is widely considered their worst album. The group only showed growth from the first project on.

I’m not advocating that Run the Jewels has already equaled the heights of the genre’s best groups ever, like Outkast and A Tribe Called Quest. However, it doesn’t look like El-P and Killer Mike are showing any signs of slowing down.