Mina Tavakoli | February 6, 2017 Like any good pair of twins, Run the Jewels have a freaky sort of unspoken fraternity. When El-P and Killer Mike strode in with their usual uniforms Mike in a gold chain as thick as a garter snake, El in a fitted Yankees cap and pair of blue-mirrored sunglasses the two didn't have to do as much as nod to one another before upending three tracks from their latest LP, RTJ3, in strange and perfect symbiosis.
El-P (ne El-Producto, ne Jaime Meline) rapper, producer, and all-around godfather of the backpacker scene of the late-90's and Killer Mike known for guest features on tracks by Atlanta's Dungeon Family in the early-aughts, solo work in the mid-to-late '00s, and perhaps most widely for his very public support of Senator Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign last year have out-mused each other in a supergroup that somehow seems to get better, louder, and more pertinent since their start in 2013. They represent an ideal evolution of underground hip-hop to mainstream success, mixing a fundamentally activist animus with IMAX-level production without losing a speck of vital force.
On an unseasonably beautiful day in D.C., Run the Jewels was sweaty and sulfuric, ad-libbing with one another in an exchange so slick, easy, and conspiratorial, it felt like we were in on their shared language.
