Hours before the clock struck 9:35 and Run the Jewels took the stage, the spirit of triumph already filled Terminal 5. Chants of “R-T-J. R-T-J. R-T-J.” echoed through the hall, as the Saturday night crowd was restless to begin the celebrations.
Celebrations were in order; Killer Mike and El-P were on their fourth and final sold out show at the venue, each showcasing one of their four collaborative records. Since coalescing ten years ago, the duo have seen nothing but success, cementing themselves in an upper echelon of rap collaborators with a string of instant-classic records.
Honored was their latest record, RTJ4, released in the midst of the pandemic and the wake of George Floyd’s murder. Past its status as one of the decade’s most decadent hardcore hip hop releases thus far, it was evidence of how far they’d come; El-P claimed, had RTJ4 been released in accordance to the sales tracking week, it would’ve charted #1.
Preceding the duo were DJ sets from frequent collaborator Nick Hook, as well as hip hop radio legend Adrian Bartos, AKA DJ Stretch Armstrong. Bartos, in particular, may have been the perfect prelude, as he wove through a set of NYC throwback hip hop, perfect for the average-40 crowd. Flowing through tracks from Nas, Biggie, and Tribe, as well as old school material from Biz Markie, Boogie Down Productions, and others, Bartos was not afraid to educate on the history of hip hop, much of which he took part in building. Bartos and Hook found themselves as the last in a string of surprise openers, which included legendary producers and peers Just Blaze, Statik Selektah, and A-Trak.
During the show, Bartos mentioned playing “Jamie’s (El-P) stuff” on his show early in his career. An archived setlist shows Bartos playing El-P & Company Flow’s “8 Steps to Perfection” as early as 1994, two years before its official release. After reaching out for comment, Bartos himself claims to have played their debut record “Juvenile Technique” frequently in ‘93, the year the group & El-P debuted. All this to say, truly, Adrian Bartos has been along for the entirety of this long, winding run.
The moment Run the Jewels walked on stage to “We Are the World,” bets for tranquility were off. Fans of all ages and creeds cheered, chanted, and crooned as the duo commanded the floor with pure hip hop exhilaration. Bouncing from the gunshot snares of “yankee and the brave (ep. 4),” towards the Gangsta Boo featured “walking in the snow,” rounded out by “few words for the firing squad (radiation),” the record’s recollective soliloquy, RTJ4 proved better in person, surrounded by a fiery crowd of deviants.
Followed by a string of greatest hits from previous records, the duo occasionally dropped their comedic fronts to be “mushy,” as El-P put it. Tributes for deceased frequent collaborator and hip hop north star Gangsta Boo poured, as did praise for the uncountable number of people who have made Run the Jewels possible over the years. As the crowd threw up their hands in their classic gun-fist iconography, El-P and Killer Mike even took moments to shower one another with proverbial flowers.
The show was a triumph on a far more personal note as well. Released at a time where I had nothing but time and energy on my hands, RTJ4 was the record that showed me hip hop had more to offer than its surface. Since then, an adoration of Killer Mike and El-P’s firepower has turned into a lifelong chase to replicate its high. In three short years, RTJ4 went from a record I found entertaining and potent, to a passion defining catalyst.
Run the Jewels began as a side project of Atlanta’s Killer Mike and New York’s El-P. First working together on Killer Mike’s R.A.P. Music and El-P’s Cancer 4 Cure, the two have worked together, near exclusively, for the better part of 10 years. Known for his Outkast collaborations and Dungeon Family associations, and early underground success with rap group Company Flow and record label Definitive Jux, respectively, the decade has seen the two showered in praise across the musical, critical, and commercial spectrum, while never taking themselves too seriously (See: Meow the Jewels).
