Coachella is an endless hub for surprise guest appearances, collaborations, premieres and more, and Run The Jewels have taken this in their stride at their set this weekend.
Not only did they premiere the video clip to Love Again (Akinyele Back) ft. Gangsta Boo, but they brought out Nas, Gary Clarke Jr., Despot, Gangsta Boo and Boots on stage, as well as DJ Shadow, with whom they performed his phenomenal RTJ-featuring new track Nobody Speak. Perhaps most importantly, the duo debuted a brand new song to feature on their forthcoming album Run The Jewels 3.
The pair were introduced to the stage by presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, via a short pre-recorded video. “One of the highlights of running for president over the course of this last year has been getting to know Killer Mike,” Sanders says in the message.
Killer Mike’s support for Sanders is renowned, which is unsurprising coming from Mike’s background of activism and social work. “His depth of passion, his knowledge and commitment to community is an inspiration to me and I value his friendship immensely.” Sanders also jokes that “the least I could do for both of you is help you out by bringing a few young people together.”
Following this, their star-studded set was by all accounts as wild as ever. Gansgta Boo came out on stage to perform her spitfire verse on Love Again, while Despot (who, along with El-P and others, recently opened a Jewish deli in Brooklyn) ripped into Big Boi‘s guest verse on Banana Clipper, Nas came out for Made You Look, Boots for Early, and Gary Clarke Jr. brought the rock ‘n roll to Angel Duster.
One of the best moments no doubt came when Killer Mike and El-P performed new track Scenes. It’s sounding aggressive and fast and frantic as hell, and that’s exactly what I’m hoping for more of on Run The Jewels 3, which is hopefully dropping later this year.
Official footage of the whole set is not yet available, but here are some snippets from social media, as well as an mp3 file of the new track here (via Stereogum):
.@runjewels brings out @nas #Coachella2016 pic.twitter.com/c8t0Xvb3d9
— XXL Magazine (@XXL) April 17, 2016
Written with Alex Crellin
Image: Getty / Christopher Polk