Who Made the Album Art for Run the Jewels
Killer Mike and El-P open up up on the importance of friendship and the power of protest
Run The Jewels members El-P and Killer Mike tell information technology similar it is.
So, when they heard Double J had crowned their fourth LP RTJ4 equally the best album of the yr, their response was directly to the point.
"You got right what the Grammys got all fucking wrong," Killer Mike tells Double J's Tim Shiel.
"We promised that we wouldn't expletive except when necessary," El-P chimes in. "That was necessary."
RTJ4 is a assuming, fierce and unrelenting hip hop record. Information technology provides a soundtrack to the acrimony and frustration of those fighting for a better life. It'south the duo'south best album even so: emotive, fiery, considered and honest.
Information technology lays bare the reality of modernistic inequality, the hypocrisy rife in politics, the toxicity of corporate media, and the systemic failings that end the world from becoming a more accepting place.
While they'd usually be trekking the globe spreading its bulletin, they were confined to their homes in 2020, watching reruns of Dear & Hip Hop (Killer Mike) and The Sopranos (El-P) and dreaming about the road.
They might have be snubbed past the Grammys, simply the rappers have felt plenty of love from fans and critics in the past six months.
"The love has been felt, absolutely," Killer Mike says of the response to RTJ4. "We've just missed the audiences, the crowds. Simply when we go back out side by side bound and summer, I'm sure we'll experience the full effects."
"We were really looking frontward to storming the world together every bit friends and rocking for everybody," El-P says.
"It was a bit of a take hold of 22. We got and so much love from the tape, it was amazing. And so we Zoomed well-nigh it for six months."
But both men are thankful for the basics they have been afforded.
"Nosotros're prophylactic, we've got our health," El-P says. "We're not destitute, information technology didn't wipe us individually out. We have loved ones who are safety, they're salubrious.
"I'm simply feeling adept that I'm hither. Shout out to those who did not take an easy year."
Both Killer Mike and El-P have vast catalogues of music as solo artists and with other groups. Only they are an altogether more powerful force when working together.
Mike says it's both the friendship between the two rappers and their different cultural perspectives that brand their work and so rich and exciting.
"That'southward the best thing equally human beings yous can practice, connect with a homo beingness on a personal level," he says of his relationship with El-P.
"Anybody has prejudices. Everyone has presumptions about others. But meeting people who don't look like y'all, [who are] non from the aforementioned ethnic groundwork – religious or culturally – and forming a bond around friendship is 1 of the probably most uplifting things y'all tin can practise in life.
"It allows you to larn without being invasive or intrusive. A friendship is a beautiful thing and information technology's not something yous go necessarily seeking. Yous just open yourself for it.
"I'k glad that people take that away from El and I'south friendship. I'1000 glad that we make dope music out of that friendship.
"I think individuals should seek people who are non like them, or be open to friendships with people who are not like them, and let that abound. You'll be amazed the lessons the universe teaches you from people who are not like yous.
"Building a friendship with El, nosotros've managed to build an amazing musical human relationship out of that friendship and, bigger than that, to have a human relationship with the audience is pretty astonishing too."
A soundtrack to protestation
When they released RTJ4 in June, the earth was rioting. Black Lives Thing protests raged the earth over and this record went a long way to explaining why.
"Globally, people are rioting, considering globally, people are always pushing against infringement of the state on their personal rights and liberties," Killer Mike says.
"After [RTJ4] dropped, people are calling me and emailing me and texting me from protest sites around the state and Run The Jewels is playing.
"People are literally bringing blast boxes out and playing Run The Jewels in opposition to the state oppressing people. That meant a lot to me, because the spirit of Run The Jewels is always with the people.
"To audibly hear the music and physically see people out there in RTJ shirts, meant a lot to me. It shows the audience are more than just passive listeners and wishers for a better earth. They are active participants in creating a improve earth and using our music as a soundtrack to exercise so."
While the two members' deft rhymes and El-P'south slamming production are what make the record so vital, the duo besides pulled in some pretty immense guests.
One song, 'JU$T', features both Zack de la Rocha and Pharrell Williams. That'southward quite a flex.
"It'south got a nice got a nice band to it, doesn't it?" El-P remarks.
"I say Zach is the unofficial third rapper [in Run The Jewels], considering he's been on more Run The Jewels songs than whatsoever other rapper. At this point we but feel like, if we tin can find a cool place for Zach, if we hear him, we're gonna call him upwards and ask him to bless united states.
"Pharrell [appeared on the anthology] considering we were in the studio when he was there, at Rick Rubin'southward studio where nosotros did the bulk of the vocals and the recording.
"We were hanging out and playing Pharrell music. He was super into what we were doing and he said, 'If you ever need anything from me, let me know'. So, nosotros let him know. And he came through.
"It'south an honor to exist in the room with those guys."
In terms of when we get to meet the songs from RTJ4 performed live? El-P promises they will
"We've been dying to go back to Commonwealth of australia and the 2nd that they let the states we will exist on a aeroplane."
Source: https://www.abc.net.au/doublej/music-reads/features/run-the-jewels-rtj4-killer-mike-el-p-interview/12965978
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