Not many debut albums have had the impact that Run The Jewels‘ eponymous debut album enjoyed. Released three years ago today, it remains one of the most important hip-hop records of the last decade; not only for its incredible production and lyrics, which covered so much ground that it playfully tackled sex and drugs as seamlessly and relevantly as it discussed crucial political and social issues, but for its importance in the careers of two artists who, until moment, were considered at the top of the underground scene. This album catapulted both Killer Mike and El-P out of the underground and into mainstream success, and the past three years have seen them travel from strength to strength, be it having friends in high places, having one of the year’s most anticipated albums, roping in every great producer imaginable to remix a cat album and much, much more.
Prior to Run The Jewels, both artists had achieved great success on their own paths, but coming together is what stepped it over the line.
Since his first official feature on Outkast’s Stankonia in 2000, Killer Mike built a solid reputation for himself as a lyrical MC, one of the foremost voices coming out of Atlanta, with a lot to say and even more ways to say it. He released five solo albums before RTJ officially started – his final to date has been the outstanding 2012 album R.A.P. Music, which was entirely produced by El-P after the pair were introduced in 2011 by Jason DeMarco from cartoon TV network Adult Swim. El-P not only produced but guested on Butane (Champion’s Anthem), and obviously laid the foundations for what would later become Run The Jewels.
El-P, meanwhile, was behind one of the underground scene’s most important labels, Def Jux, under which he released music from his own ex-group Company Flow, alongside Cannibal Ox, early Aesop Rock, Del the Funky Homosapien, RJD2, Camu Tao (RIP), self-featuring supergroup The Weathermen and many more. He’d also been releasing solo albums since 2002’s wonderful Fantastic Damage, which he continued to do after the label eventually folded around 2010.
El-P’s final solo album also came out in 2012, the equally lauded Cancer 4 Cure, on which Killer Mike also featured on Tougher Colder Killer. With both albums in fact dropping less than two weeks apart, the pair took the show on the road as a double headline tour. Each artist would take turns playing first, with the pair joining forces on stage at the end of their sets. This clearly sparked an unstoppable wildfire, as they officially came together and released Run The Jewels on June 26, 2013.
It is nothing short of incredible to see two middle-aged men swoop in and not only release the most strongly received album of their respective careers, but of hip-hop in general. RTJ and its sequel, Run The Jewels II, are both phenomenal. Not only do they address many important topics alongside the more traditional hip-hop subjects, but they’re catchy at fuck and brilliantly produced by the legendary El-P.
From the first verse of the self-applauding, self-titled opening track, it’s clear that something serious is bubbling: “Oh dear what the fuck have we here?” El-P quizzes. “These motherfuckers all thorn no rose / Oh shit what the hell have we done? / It’s alive and it’s hungry as fuck / Better hide all the snacks and the dough / It is out of my control, you are shit out of luck /I don’t wanna be unfair but the pair we got beat that weak shit you got.”
From there, we visit the Big Boi-featuring Banana Clipper, 36″ Chain, DDFH (Do Dope Fuck Hope), Sea Legs and beyond. Each track takes turns introducing us to the many faces and the beautiful dichotomy that is Run The Jewels: weed, psychedelics and women, (El:“I drive at illegal speeds, keep an oz in my pocket”) neatly tucked in besides crucial socio-political commentary (KM: “Cops in the ghetto they move like the Gestapo, drunk off their power and greed, they often hostile / My little homie talked shit back and they beat him bad, that boy in the hospital now he’s lookin’ bad”), threaded together with clever wordplay (El: “Never met a word that I wouldn’t like a weapon just brandish”), more than a few sci-fi and comic book references (KM: “It’s time for Skywalker talk cause meet the true Darth Vader”) and self-love, bigging each other up to no end (KM: “Producer gave me a beat, said it’s the beat of the year, I said El-P didn’t do it so get the fuck outta here!“) (El: “If you come straight from New York you relate, if you come straight from another place stay tuned /Me and Mike got the whole map held safe”).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_rwa4ZbKgA
One of my personal favourite RTJ songs are album closer, the darkly festive A Christmas Fucking Miracle. Often used in their live sets, the haunting, piano-laden track talks about staying true to yourself. El-P breaks down the concrete jungle and the man getting you down (“The most impressionable minds get molested and informed by manipulating forces /Don’t fret little man, don’t cry, they can never take the energy inside you were born with“) while Mike speaks of preferring savages to the pre-informed “powers that be”, (“Told us they ain’t take us out if we bow to our knees
But they can give that to the kings and the queens… Cause I would rather be in the jungle with the savages,“) before shouting out Ice Cube (“Still spell Amerikkka with a triple K“) and those who have fallen (“Rest in peace to Pimp C and Camu, too, we do it all for you”). It’s all only embellished by this incredible music video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQ5rI461KNE
The production is varied and remarkably engaging; from the hand-clapping rhythm and warbling, dystopic atmosphere of the anti-Big Pharma beat DDFH, to the understated slink of No Come Down, with Killer Mike’s low-slinging verse about drug-fuelled sexual experiences.
Widely considered one of the strongest, most relevant voices in hip-hop today, Run The Jewels have been praised by many of their contemporaries, including Kendrick Lamar, Talib Kweli and Nas, as well as the music industry as a whole, with many publications voting RTJ and RTJ2 among the best releases of their respective years.
As we eagerly await for Run The Jewels 3, I recommend not only revisiting their previous two albums, but to listen to Nobody Speaks, their collaboration with DJ Shadow, which might just be my favourite song of 2016 so far, and each artist’s stellar pre-RTJ catalogue. The pair also debuted a brand new song called Scenes at Coachella, and while this is yet to see the light of CDQ day, we assume it will either feature on the album, or it may be an early version of their Adult Swim single, which will be released at some point in the next couple months.
As brilliant, biting and relevant as event, celebrate three years of Run The Jewels by listening to one of the decade’s best albums:
In some fairly bizarre news, information has surfaced that a new film is coming out, written by Alex Blagg and Neel Shah, and produced by Kevin Hart. It’s called Run The Jewels.
No, it’s not an RTJ documentary or film, it’s not based on their songs or lyrics, nothing like that. According to The Hollywood Reporter, “The film centers on a group of failed rappers who attempt to rob an eccentric hip-hop mogul.”
It comes as absolutely no surprise whatsoever, that Killer Mike and El-P aren’t too happy with this.
https://twitter.com/therealelp/status/745402241494835201
https://twitter.com/KillerMike/status/745533784229978113?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
It’s pretty ridiculous that anyone thought they could make a film bearing the same title as one of the foremost acts in the industry right now, without anyone noticing or calling them out. I doubt anyone’s going to try and make a film called Kanye West or To Pimp A Butterfly or something like that, without anyone noticing the similarities. The copyright claims and potential trademark infringements are obvious and immediate to the point where it’s genuinely baffling. Even more so because it’s a film about hip-hop, and because it’s a major Hollywood film produced by Universal. It’s unquestionably true that the intended demographic of this film would certainly overlap with people who have heard of Run The Jewels; it’s not like the creative team behind the film had never hear of Run The Jewels, or that they did a quick Google search and didn’t notice the countless results about the hip-hop duo.
It’ll be interesting to see if this goes any further than a few tweets. We’ll make sure to update the story as it unfolds.
Image: Mass Appeal
Despite the recent collaboration between DJ Shadow and themselves, there’s been quite a wait for Run The Jewels fans eagerly awaiting any news of their third album Run The Jewels 3.
To put an end to all the rumours, we finally have more information from one half of the duo. The man himself, Killer Mike stopped by to talk to HipHopWired and ended up disclosing everything he could about the heavily anticipated third record, letting us know that they should be fine for a 2016 release date.
“I’d like to be finished by July 7th, I’d like to ball out on the 4th,” Mike told HipHopWired. “I think we will be done soon. People know when we say soon, we’re trying to get it out. We want it out this year.”
Mike promises a “harder, darker, meaner, angrier” album, something that seems almost impossible to accomplish after their past projects, which touched on plenty of heavy topics like police brutality, religion, and the government, intertwined with RTJ’s classic zany themes, tea-bagging piranha tanks and running through fields of dicks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEOximWoFd0
“I’m just smoking weed, eating ‘shrooms, watching Big Trouble In Little China everyday,” laughs Mike. “You know what we’re doing, we’re going zany. We’re going dark. I think we have some stuff that will touch your soul, and that’s just with demos and rough stuff. In a few days we’re going to polish the diamonds up.”
With big name collaborations such as Big Boi and Zac De La Rocha, Mike was asked about what big name artist may contribute to this record, yet he remained composed and amusingly refused to give any information about the collaborator they have in mind.
Luckily for us though, he did happen to say that Run The Jewels will absolutely be touring this release, so fingers crossed we see the duo heading down under in the New Year or sooner.
If you’re interested to hear what the project might sound like, El-P actually teased some of the beats from the project which you can check out here! For further reading you can also check out our interview we did with the two of them here and to watch the full interview with Killer Mike, head to HipHopWired here!
Talk about a mega mash-up for the ages. Courtesy of Daylight Curfew, Run The Jewels have taken a break from recording upcoming album Run The Jewels 3 to dip their toe into collaborative fashion, colliding with one of Adult Swim’s most popular animated series in Rick & Morty to make Rick The Jewels. The collab is for a limited edition collection consisting of a t-shirt, tank top and crew neck sweatshirt that will be sure to sell out like absolute hotcakes upon their release later today.
If you’re a fan of either or both of these pop cultural powerhouses and you’re itching to get your hands on any or all of these sweet, sweet garments, there are advance links where early bird responders will be allowed a full hour to cop this exclusive collection ahead of the rest of the unwashed masses. They are available here via Daylight Curfew. RSVP now, and grab your chance to rock this dope, limited edition collection before everybody else.
You can also check out Run The Jewels’ raw and emotional performance on The Tonight Show with DJ Shadow for their collaborative track Nobody Speak below:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbuqo6NfVB8]
As well as revel in all of the glory that is, and was, Meow The Jewels:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gzkkm_m3mVE]
And, of course, don’t forget to revisit your love for the genius of Rick & Morty ahead of Season 2’s home media release here in Australia on July 6, available for pre-order from JB Hi-Fi here.
The release might be enough (but probably won’t be) to tide over fans of the hit Adult Swim program as they await concrete news on Season 3 of the series, with ‘late 2016′ all the comfort on offer at time of writing.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ecYoSvGO60]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OfJk0Zh-IA]
Beloved underground hip-hop/trip-hop producer DJ Shadow took to the stage of the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday to promote his upcoming album The Mountain Will Fall. Joining him for the night were collaborators Run The Jewels, who feature on the album’s incredible lead single Nobody Speak.
The trio performed the lead single from The Mountain Will Fall further accompanied by a live wind section. Killer Mike ended the performance with a dedication “to all the victims of violence from Chicago to Orlando.”
Check out the ever capable RTJ performance and DJ Shadow tear it up on the decks below.
You can also check out this incredible song again in this week’s Wednesday Rap Wrap to peep the lyric video, which dropped on America’s Tuesday. The video comes courtesy of Pitchfork.tv’s Matt Caldamone and is the first in a series of lyric videos Pitchfork is developing in-house.
The Mountain Will Fall is set to be released on June 24 and marks DJ Shadow’s first album since The Less You Know, the Better which dropped five years ago. The Mountain Will Fall also features Matthew Halsall, G Jones, Nils Frahm, and more, with Frahm and DJ Shadow having recently unveiled Bergschrund.
Read our interview with Run The Jewels.
Image: PulseRadio
Hangin’ for some new tunes to get you through the hump day blues? Fear not, for here’s your mid-week rap wrap courtesy of your loyal H&E editor.
Doomtree, Spill Me Up
This track has a sound that is just everything I love to an absolute tee – a heavy, industrial-leaning instrumental with a focus on a heavy bass and paranoid synths, all the while topped with clear verses with incredibly refined, clever lyrics. It’s the perfect blend of old and new. The track features production from Lazerbeak, with rhymes from Sims, Cecil Otter (who provides my favourite rhymes here) and P.O.S. According to Soundcloud, the entire collective are working on their own solo projects, so Doomtree have a lot to look forward to.
Logic, Flexicution
New Logic is always a good thing. Especially when it’s a song that he’s been teasing for so long. It’s a classic slice of braggadocio pie, with Logic showing off a menacing bravado – and for good reason too. His incredibly flow not only gives us reason to believe the hype, but makes for a serious banger. “Flexicution? This is what people said they wanted from the rap god.” Oh, and the female vocalist who comes in at the end? That’s his wife, Jess Andrea. Talk about a power couple.
https://youtu.be/M2NIMHVmGwk
Keke Palmer, Yellow Lights
Here’s a little R&B-pop intermission for you from famed actress and singer Keke Palmer. Keke’s electrifying voice is crystal clear and seductive as hell. Backed by a sparse, woozy beat, it’s the kind of sound that made me love Rihanna’s newest album as opposed to her last few – it’s raw, sensual, and only manufactured just enough that it’s a catchy pop banger – not something unlistenably synthetic. This is a track for a hip-slingin’ slow dance, horizontal or otherwise. She’s got a really clear natural talent and those vocal runs are absolute honey on the ears.
DJ Shadow ft. Run The Jewels, Nobody Speak (lyric video)
Alright so this isn’t new music, it is a new lyric video, but considering this song is easily in my top five tracks of 2016 I couldn’t just leave it unreported, now could I? DJ Shadow and RTJ both have albums coming out this year, and I have no doubt they’re both going to be among the greatest releases in a year already overflowing with musical ambrosia. This track absolutely slays. Every single layer – lyrics, beats, melodic instrumental layers, sampling, fucking everything. I can’t remember the last time I played a song so many times on repeat as I have with this one.
Hip-hop lyric videos can be a wondrous thing, and considering this track contains some of Mike and El’s funniest lyrics, including my personal favourite line about smoking snow cones with the entire cast of Peanuts, this colourful clip is one hell of a ride Not only does it satisfy the rap-loving word nerds, but this is a typographer’s wet dream.
It should also be noted that the track has been released on Conde Nast’s own Youtube opponent The Scene, not YouYube. Read our new feature here to find out whether or not the music industry is boycotting YouTube, and why.
Manu Crook$, Blowin’ Up ft. Miracle (Prod. DOPAMINE & Many Crook$)
For anyone who says they blankly just don’t like, or refuses to listen to hip-hop from Australia, and for anyone who just likes solid tunes and club-ready hip-hop. I got to catch both Crook$ and Miracle in the flesh a couple nights ago in Sydney and their slinky, trap-influenced beats had the crowd heaving. Not only is it crucial to understand and witness just how much the local landscape is expanding and refining, but this is just a damn fine track courtesy of Manu Crook$’s fresh rhymes and DOPAMINE’s production, as wicked as ever.
Image: Facebook / Keke Palmer
El-P, one half of Run The Jewels, has released another snippet of Run The Jewels 3, their impending third album over Instagram, and it’s definitely the most, ah, imaginative one yet.
The caption says it all, really.
It’s exactly the kind of brash, off-the-wall self-aggrandising we have come to expect (and love) from the duo. This isn’t the first time we’ve had RTJ3 drip-fed to us through Instagram – bits and pieces have been coming our way since last year. In March, we heard direct from El-P’s Twitter that a 2016 release for the album “is achievable” due to a more stable economy (however slightly). As the hints seem to be coming at us thick & fast, is this the duo’s way of telling us that RTJ3 is imminent?
This newest puzzle piece is arguably the crown jewel so far, but who knows what to expect next. Maybe next time we hear from Run The Jewels, they’ll be dropping the album.
The pair have been anything but quiet in the lead-up to the album. They recently also featured on DJ Shadow’s new track Nobody Speak, have also soundtracked the new Marvel Black Panther series, as well as recently releasing a new video for RTJ2 singles Crown and Love Again ft. Gangsta Boo.
More: Read our interview with Run The Jewels
Image: prettymuchamazing
In a year where many musicians are sadly passing away all too young, it’s understandable that many are feeling the nostalgia and doubting that the musicians of today will be able to hold candles to the giants they stand on. Earlier this week however, Talib Kweli came out against a Twitter user who was doing exactly that, who claimed that A Tribe Called Quest and Rakim can’t be compared to the sounds of today.
https://twitter.com/TalibKweli/status/732672904933068800?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Over a number of tweets, Talib named Run The Jewels, Joey Bada$$, Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, Rapsody, Anderson .Paak and Chance The Rapper as artists “all great, on [their] way to legend.” All of these artists are absolutely killing it at the moment – constantly releasing well-received music and each with their own distinct sound – but kind words from the one and only Talib Kweli can’t do anything but help their reputation and their self-confidence. In the same post Kweli also addressed the ease of finding good and original music in the age we live in.
“You are pretending that finding good music is harder than it used to be. That is false. It’s way easier… People forget the primary subject of real hiphop from 20-30 years ago was the ubiquitous ‘wacl MC’. Cuz there was a lot of wack shit out.”
https://twitter.com/TalibKweli/status/732686737693085697?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Indeed, when we interviewed Kweli last year he told us, ” [To Pimp A Butterfly] is an experimentation in hip-hop, it’s funk and jazz, and he’s talking about the black experience as a kid from Compton. Kendrick is the number one most popular rapper right now, with the exception of maybe Drake. So to me, that signals a really healthy market for real music… People know the names of the artists that play club music, but people have nothing invested in these artists. People have something invested in Kendrick, and Run The Jewels, and J Cole and A$AP Rocky.”
Some wise words from one of the biggest names in biz. It’s an exciting time for music that we live in, and living in the past is getting no one anywhere interesting. Let’s wait and see if Talib’s predictions are true, and these acts all become legends – we’re pretty confident they will.
Check out our review of Talib Kweli alongside Common in Melbourne here.
Image: oogeewoogee
Continuing the promotion for one of the most (if not the most) exciting releases in comics this year, Marvel have teamed up with Run The Jewels for the Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet trailer.
Brought back to life by writer Ta-Nehisi Coates and artist Brian Stelfreeze in the comics and also on screen in Captain America: Civil War by Chadwick Boseman, the superhero Black Panther (T’Challa) is now the subject of a monthly video series that sees the comics animated and given commentary by the creators.
Having recently announced a print reboot, Black Panther debuted in 1966 as the first black superhero in mainstream comic books and the new series is set to be promoted pretty damn hard by the folks over at Marvel. They’re said to have enlisted “some of the biggest names in the music industry” to provide the music for the trailers, and they’ve started things off strong with Run The Jewels’ Oh My Darling (Don’t Cry).
The first video has Coates discuss the comic in what is an almost “directors-notes” style commentary. He goes through each character and their motivations as the track plays, giving insight into the backstory and where we come into the Black Panther world now. Marvel said that the video marks the first in a series to be released on a monthly basis as the story of T’Challa and the Wakanda nation develops.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVqAnQe_xGw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-S9mtYowPY
Image: Marvel
With recent news that Run the Jewels 3 is halfway done, bringing U.S Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders on stage at Coachella, and earlier this week Killer Mike sharing his thoughts on the state of the music industry and free music, Run The Jewels have been in the news almost constantly. Well, today we’ve got some more. Originally only released as part of the New York Times Magazine’s new music issue, Run The Jewels have released the video for Crown, off their second album Run the Jewels 2. Also the first release on their VRTJ smartphone app, the video doubles as an immersive virtual reality experience – both via virtual reality headsets and in a 360° view on Youtube.
Shot in black and white, we’re treated to a cast of characters surrounding us throughout. Killer Mike regrets selling a pregnant mother cocaine, only to meet her years later and find that she’s been reborn through Christ, and El-P gives us a scary insight into the indoctrination of modern-day soldiers. There’s some impressive visual effects going on here, like gunfire and our closeness to each of the characters. As the name of the track suggests too, Killer Mike and El-P don the symbol of the crown at a number of points throughout the clip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCNzOQ2Ok8s
Artists like Björk and The Weeknd have also recently released 360° music videos, and with the rise of VR the number will continue to rise. With access to Virtual Reality headsets becoming easier and easier, immersive music videos will no doubt become an artform all of their own – further blurring the line between music and visual arts.
Image: Run the Jewels