Run the Jewels is hip-hop's hottest duo. Both El-P and Killer Mike both built impressive fan bases by favoring intellect over catchy hooks, but many critics argue that they've elevated their games since joining up.
"It's not a coincidence," El-P told NPR. "I disagree with a lot of things written about us, but that's true. That's true. I mean, if we didn't feel that way, we wouldn't be working together. I think that we found something that sparked both of us. That's why we've churned out, essentially, together three albums in the last couple years. I've been around long enough to know that that type of creative spark is rare to hold on to. So yeah, no, I do think that that's true. For me, I feel it's true. And I think that we also push each other to, you know, to just be at our best. I really do think it's true."
Mike likened the duo to the NBA's best mid-'90s combo.
"It's like when Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon hooked up in Houston," Mike said. "Like, Clyde Drexler had been dope his whole career but he's playing in Portland, you know what I mean? And Hakeem kinda hit his boy like, 'Yo. Come to Houston.' That became, like, dynasty levels, you know what I mean? So that's what I look at it like.
When people say, 'Y'all got better together,' I don't take it as — that's what friends in dope work relationships do. Things are supposed to make you better. So, if getting better — and I've already been pretty dope — is coming at this time, then I welcome it. And hopefully we'll just continue to do that."
Both rappers have hit low points in the past.
"I did get to a point when I started to wonder 'Am I ever gonna — is it gonna be that I just have this ongoing career of making these critically-acclaimed records where I just sort of stay at a similar level?' El-P said. "If so, OK. But then you know the inevitable is that you then taper off. Getting to a point where you're thinking to yourself — that fear in the back of your head comes, where it's like, it's not about money. It's not about fame, like Mike said. But it's about how much you love doing what you do."
When Killer Mike hit bottom, a talk with former NFL player Stanely Pritchett turned his life around.
"I talked to him when I was really ready to quit," Mike said. "I was really ready to just forget it. I'll open some businesses. I'm savvy enough to figure this out. I'm tired of hitting my head against the wall, of being away from my children. And Robert called me and told me, 'You're crazy.' He said, 'We have had — think about everybody we grew up with: Cam, Stanley, me.' And I thought about everybody we grew up with in the neighborhood and everyone we went to school with. Cause I went to school with him 14 years, from kindergarten through graduation - or, 13. He said, 'Michael, of all the people that had a change to live their dream, you're the only one who's still doing it. And until they put you out, don't quit.'"
Now, here they are, dominating the rap world with their recent Run The Jewels 2 release. Check out a sample below:
