KingsOfKings
🍊 𝑳𝒆𝒕'𝒔 𝑻𝒂𝒍𝒌 𝑵𝒖𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒔 ! 🍊
Run the Jewels have a lot to celebrate this year. Their first album, the genesis of RTJ, turns 10 this week. Plus, they’ve decided to mark the occasion with blowout anniversary runs in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, and Los Angeles come fall. It’s a victory lap in a story full of victory laps. But as everyone involved is quick to admit, the beginning of RTJ was far humbler. Nobody expected it to go this way. In a series of Zoom conversations with Complex—Killer Mike from his home in Atlanta, El-P from his home in Brooklyn—the duo looked back on how it all started.
“I don’t think we’ll ever be able to recapture that moment,” El-P admits. “It’s really unique—the lack of expectations, the magic of us hooking up and making something for no audience. There was no history. It was just a moment of feeling refreshed, having fun.”
“There’s never been a time where I didn’t understand this is what I’m supposed to be doing, and this is who I’m supposed to be doing it with,” Killer Mike says, reflecting on the immediate bond Run the Jewels created for him. He adds, laughing: “Sometimes it was just waiting for him to come around.”
“I don’t think we’ll ever be able to recapture that moment... the magic of us hooking up and making something for no audience. There was no history. It was just a moment of feeling refreshed, having fun.”
Run the Jewels’ origin story comes with a prologue, in the shape of Killer Mike’s 2012 solo album, R.A.P. Music. That collection was produced entirely by El-P, the New York producer Mike had only recently just met thanks to their mutual acquaintance, Adult Swim creative director Jason DeMarco. DeMarco had known and worked with both rappers, and he found himself conversing with Killer Mike at a crossroads—his solo career wasn’t going where he wanted it to, and he was wrestling with continuing to use the Killer Mike name.
In the years leading up to their introduction, El-P and Killer Mike had both been through the wringer. El had already been in the game for nearly 20 years, dating back to his late teens. Along the way, he got started in the group Company Flow, spearheaded the label Definitive Jux, and released a handful of acclaimed solo albums. He was renowned in New York’s backpack scene, but had a crisis of faith in his mid-30s, amidst the collapse of Def Jux.
“I didn’t even know if people would want to hear from me again,” El remembers. “It was the first time I was having some major doubts about my future. I was scared.” Exiting an era of frustration and anxiety about his future as an artist, El knew all he had left was his ability to make a new solo album. That’s where his focus was.
Mike, too, had an arc that hadn’t quite gone as hoped. After making his recording debut on OutKast’s Stankonia, he rejoined the ATL legends for “The Whole World,” which nabbed them (and him) a Grammy. But his solo run through the 2000s hadn’t elevated him to stardom, and he wondered what to do next. Still, he was perhaps in a less jaded place than his soon-to-be producer. “Man, I’m eternally optimistic,” he says. “If you put a pile of horseshyt in one room, I’m the kid who’s going to come in and say, ‘With all this shyt in here, there’s gotta be a goddamn pony somewhere for me to ride.’” His hopeful outlook was finally about to pay off.
“I had a particular interest at that time in the idea of mashing up ‘indie’- or ‘alternative’-style rap music with what was the more prevalent style of Southern rap music,” DeMarco recalls. “I asked Mike what his favorite album was and he said Amerikkka’s Most Wanted. I knew there was only one artist that made sense to bring to him to produce.”
Just as Ice Cube’s classic debut has long signified a union between East and West Coasts thanks to its Bomb Squad production, so, too, would El-P and Killer Mike’s partnership cross territorial lines geographically and stylistically. They were both students of rap history, and fans of the same music from their childhoods. Neither of them was coming to this marriage ignorant of the other’s background, and they soon found common ground. Realizing they were a mere month apart in age, they connected over the music that made them: formative ‘90s rap. Of course, the premise still looked wild from the outside.
More at link
www.complex.com
“I don’t think we’ll ever be able to recapture that moment,” El-P admits. “It’s really unique—the lack of expectations, the magic of us hooking up and making something for no audience. There was no history. It was just a moment of feeling refreshed, having fun.”
“There’s never been a time where I didn’t understand this is what I’m supposed to be doing, and this is who I’m supposed to be doing it with,” Killer Mike says, reflecting on the immediate bond Run the Jewels created for him. He adds, laughing: “Sometimes it was just waiting for him to come around.”
“I don’t think we’ll ever be able to recapture that moment... the magic of us hooking up and making something for no audience. There was no history. It was just a moment of feeling refreshed, having fun.”
Run the Jewels’ origin story comes with a prologue, in the shape of Killer Mike’s 2012 solo album, R.A.P. Music. That collection was produced entirely by El-P, the New York producer Mike had only recently just met thanks to their mutual acquaintance, Adult Swim creative director Jason DeMarco. DeMarco had known and worked with both rappers, and he found himself conversing with Killer Mike at a crossroads—his solo career wasn’t going where he wanted it to, and he was wrestling with continuing to use the Killer Mike name.
In the years leading up to their introduction, El-P and Killer Mike had both been through the wringer. El had already been in the game for nearly 20 years, dating back to his late teens. Along the way, he got started in the group Company Flow, spearheaded the label Definitive Jux, and released a handful of acclaimed solo albums. He was renowned in New York’s backpack scene, but had a crisis of faith in his mid-30s, amidst the collapse of Def Jux.
“I didn’t even know if people would want to hear from me again,” El remembers. “It was the first time I was having some major doubts about my future. I was scared.” Exiting an era of frustration and anxiety about his future as an artist, El knew all he had left was his ability to make a new solo album. That’s where his focus was.
Mike, too, had an arc that hadn’t quite gone as hoped. After making his recording debut on OutKast’s Stankonia, he rejoined the ATL legends for “The Whole World,” which nabbed them (and him) a Grammy. But his solo run through the 2000s hadn’t elevated him to stardom, and he wondered what to do next. Still, he was perhaps in a less jaded place than his soon-to-be producer. “Man, I’m eternally optimistic,” he says. “If you put a pile of horseshyt in one room, I’m the kid who’s going to come in and say, ‘With all this shyt in here, there’s gotta be a goddamn pony somewhere for me to ride.’” His hopeful outlook was finally about to pay off.
“I had a particular interest at that time in the idea of mashing up ‘indie’- or ‘alternative’-style rap music with what was the more prevalent style of Southern rap music,” DeMarco recalls. “I asked Mike what his favorite album was and he said Amerikkka’s Most Wanted. I knew there was only one artist that made sense to bring to him to produce.”
Just as Ice Cube’s classic debut has long signified a union between East and West Coasts thanks to its Bomb Squad production, so, too, would El-P and Killer Mike’s partnership cross territorial lines geographically and stylistically. They were both students of rap history, and fans of the same music from their childhoods. Neither of them was coming to this marriage ignorant of the other’s background, and they soon found common ground. Realizing they were a mere month apart in age, they connected over the music that made them: formative ‘90s rap. Of course, the premise still looked wild from the outside.
More at link
‘Made For Each Other’: El-P And Killer Mike On The Making Of 'Run The Jewels'
The iconic rap duo looks back on how it all started.
www.complex.com