Run the Jewels rappers El-P and Killer Mike swaggered onto the stage at the start of their set Friday night to the triumphant strains of Queen’s "We are the Champions," and to be fair, the pair had ample reason to celebrate. What began as an excuse for these two 41-year old hip-hop veterans and collaborators to further explore their mutual admiration has exploded into a bona fide grass-roots phenomenon.
Staring out at the Aragon’s sold-out sea of 5,000 fans, a humbled El-P — the proud product of the more commonly club-sized underground — couldn’t help but describe the impressive sight as his "rap fantasy." Yet Run the Jewels’ strength stems not from success but from a sense that the battle has not yet begun. They’re not the champs with their hands raised in victory but underdog defenders pacing in their corner before the fight, ready to come out swinging, and for all their boasts and gleefully profane trash talk, the duo’s three albums are fueled by an anxious energy, laced with paranoia and rage.
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Killer Mike, a big guy in an oversize shirt who campaigned last year for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, started "Talk to Me" ready for "war with the Devil and Shaytan/ he wore a bad toupee and a spray tan," and in "Lie, Cheat, Steal" likened himself to "a revolutionary bangin’ on my adversaries," acknowledging the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. but admitting "violence might be necessary."
El-P, in head-to-toe denim and a pair of sunglasses that never came off, worked as Mike’s equal partner, taking aim at those in power in "A Report to the Shareholders" ("a horse is a horse, of course, but who rides is important") and "Early," the latter making the conspiratorial observation that "yes, there’s a ‘they,’ any time a man say there’s not/ Then you know that he lost the plot."
Over a bed of low, mean and lean beats, the two blazed through their set list with purpose and propulsion, but for all the angry catharsis it was the duo’s clearly close friendship that elevated the show. With silly asides and sly in-jokes, Killer Mike and El-P seemed to be relishing their time together and also the chance to collectively rally the troops. Indeed, for all its frenetic speaking truth to power, Run the Jewels has grown kicking and screaming into a leader in its own right, with pockets full of political and musical capital ready to spend.
Joshua Klein is a freelance critic.
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