Run The Jewels Essentials

Before coming together as Run The Jewels, American rappers Michael “Killer Mike” Render and Jaime “El-P” Meline were already respected figures in the indie-rap trenches. Following a number of collaborations across solo releases, their proper union created an immediate big-bang effect that launched them into the mainstream, thanks to politically minded content and aggressive, distorted beats on early cuts like 2014’s “Blockbuster Night Pt. 1” and the gold-selling “Close Your Eyes (And Count to F**k),” rounded out by an invigorated Zack De La Rocha. The superduo soon expanded their reach even further, foregrounding their bald-faced humor on DJ Shadow’s internet-fueled 2016 earworm “Nobody Speak” and their brash tag-team wordplay on 2020’s “ooh la la,” featuring ’90s hip-hop royalty DJ Premier and Greg Nice. Coming to this blockbuster collaboration after several strong solo albums and his formative work with Company Flow, El-P praised Killer Mike’s rarified vocal impact in a 2020 interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe: “He cuts through a track like [a] hot knife through butter. And it means something—and it strikes something—in your soul when you hear him jump on a song.” As both an MC and a producer, El-P is no slouch either, and their pairing reliably yields dynamite.