The fourth Run the Jewels full-length, RTJ4, is the hardcore rap duo’s first since Donald Trump’s inauguration. Not at all by coincidence, it’s also the most sociopolitically outspoken album they’ve released to date. On their third, released at the end of 2016, rapper-activist Killer Mike and rapper-producer El-P let poignant, sober lyrics about war, religion, […]
Tag: Run the Jewels
Posted inMusic
The Pitchfork Music Festival announces its 2020 lineup
For its 15th year, the famously eclectic fest has booked headliners the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Run the Jewels, and the National.
Posted inMusic
Mother Nature rep hip-hop as a culture, a calling, and a career
Chicago rap duo Mother Nature have already carried their message of self-reliance and self-realization into schools and overseas—and they’re raising their own bar with the EP Pressure.
Posted inMusic
Brokedowns drummer Mustafa Daka on the greatest heavy-hitting drummer alive
Current musical obsessions of Brokedowns drummer Mustafa Daka, Rad Payoff guitarist Jason Smith, and Reader music listings coordinator Luca Cimarusti
Posted inBlogs
Riot Fest 2018 Sunday [PHOTOS]
Run the Jewels closed out Riot Fest 2018. We have the live photos and a review by Jamie Ludwig of Sunday sets from Blondie and The Avengers. Photos by Danny O’Donnell Riot Fest 2018 Sunday
Posted inBlogs
Riot Fest and more of the best things to do in Chicago this weekend
The Music Box 70mm Film Festival and more goings-on 9/14-9/16
Posted inBlogs
Riot Fest finalizes its daily lineups—though the big new acts were announced yesterday
Yesterday we learned that Weezer, Run the Jewels, and Taking Back Sunday were replacing Blink-182 at Riot Fest. Today organizers added seven more bands, and single-day tickets went on sale.
Posted inBlogs
Lollapalooza 2017 lineup: Chance the Rapper takes a victory lap with a bunch of predictable acts
The local rap hero is one of the few bright spots on an otherwise anemic Lollapalooza lineup that also includes Lorde, Migos, the XX, Run the Jewels, and, um, Liam Gallagher.
Posted inMusic
On their third album, Run the Jewels swagger with a sense of triumph while revealing a new strain of humanism
Killer Mike and El-P up the ante on their self-released third album as Run the Jewels, tapping into floor-rumbling old-school Miami bass fundamentals—albeit a strain that pushes the tradition into the present—and laying out classic, rhythmically agile, hectoring flows. Both MCs convey steamroller energy, infusing every track with a ferocity that draws juice from our […]
Posted inBlogs
Goose Island’s Twin Peaks beer, Natural Villain, finds a natural environment at the Pitchfork Music Festival
The fourth installment of Goose Island’s annual Pitchfork beer is a “garage lager.”
Posted inBlogs
Sketchbook Festival’s final year, Run the Jewels at the MCA, and more things to do in Chicago this weekend
RhinoFest, The Year of the Rooster, and other weekend happenings in Chicago from January 15-17.
Posted inBlogs
I changed my mind: Year-end lists matter
The thread connecting grief, Facebook, and end-of-the-year lists
Posted inFilm
Killer Mike and El-P of Run the Jewels meditate on a musician’s true path
In an interview with Chicago producer A-Villa, Killer Mike recalls: “When I got there in the studio with El, I felt like Snoop the day he found Dre.”
Posted inBlogs
Lollapalooza’s rainy and radiant final day, starring Chance the Rapper
The festival ends with triumphant set from the hometown hero, featuring a surprise R. Kelly cameo and an ocean of mud.
Posted inBlogs
Recapping the final day of the Pitchfork Music Festival
Tree’s soul-trap sermon, Killer Mike’s contagious smile, Lil B’s netherworldly bass, R. Kelly’s inflatable white doves, and more beats than you can shake a stick at