In a stay interview with journalist Noah Callahan-Bever in 2023, Killer Mike recalled when he met his soon-to-be core collaborator for over a decade, El-P. “Out of all of the loves you’ve liked, you don’t know why you’re keen on that love, that you just love,” Mike proclaimed about his emotions of awe after rapping on the primary 4 beats El-P performed him within the studio. “However I knew immediately, I’m in love with this man. This man’s beats is CRAZY… Inside three hours, I known as Jason (DeMarco) and stated, ‘You gotta get him to do the entire album.’”
That album was 2012’s R.A.P. Music, the precursor to 4 future albums that might fall underneath the duo’s dynamic group moniker, Run The Jewels. From 2013 to 2022, RTJ put the signature finger–gun salute and fist-pound on the map, coining a signature booming rap/rock/funk fusion that’s captivated worldwide audiences. El-P additionally produced and featured on Killer Mike’s three-time Grammy-winning solo album, Michael, in 2023.
In that very same interview with Callahan-Bever, Mike additionally talked about how he and El-P had recognized one another peripherally for years however by no means collided in the identical orbit till 2011. We chronicled that multi-decade parallel planetary timeline beneath so you could possibly get the total context of the RTJ origin story.
1975
Michael Santiago Render (Killer Mike) and Jaime Meline (El-P) had been born of their respective hometowns, Atlanta and Brooklyn, respectively. Solely El-P had a mum or dad with a musical background, as his father was a jazz pianist who glided by the moniker Harry Keys.
1992-1993
El-P attended the Heart For The Media Arts in Manhattan and studied music engineering. He met Louis Ballentine there, who acknowledged his ability at rapping and would take him with him to Hollis, Queens, to hang around and file. There, he met Anntex, founding father of Tuff Metropolis Data, who would launch El-P’s first file, entitled Juvenile Method. He was simply 17 years previous on the time, however the tape would garner reward from legendary radio hosts Stretch and Bobbito. El-P would additionally rent Mr. Len, his eventual Firm Stream collaborator, to DJ his seventeenth celebration, and the 2 grew to become quick associates and music companions.
1994-1995
El-P and Mr. Len linked with rapper Bigg Jus and formally shaped the group Firm Stream. Initially, the trio labored privately on their craft, forging an identification as a prolific, burgeoning rap group.
In 1995, Killer Mike, whereas attending Morehouse School, would meet the producer crew The Beat Bullies. Then, via them, he would join with James Patton, an early collaborator and the youthful brother of Massive Boi of OutKast. This is able to, after all, result in Mike’s eventual affiliation with OutKast and the legendary Atlanta collective, The Dungeon Household. Round this time, Mike additionally launched an unbiased underground file entitled Slumlord, an underground file that includes James Patton. He recalled, to the web site HITS, enjoying the file to Massive Boi in Cee Lo Inexperienced’s basement and Massive Boi particularly praising his raps.
1996-1997
El-P’s group Firm Stream launched their debut Funcrusher EP in ‘96, which spurred a label bidding battle. The crew would signal to Rawkus Data and launch their debut album, naturally titled Funcrusher Plus, in ‘97. It could be the group’s sole full-length album.
1999-2000
El-P and Mr. Len would launch an instrumental album, Little Johnny From the Hospitul: Breaks & Instrumentals Vol. 1, on Rawkus, however disputes about label help and funds would trigger Firm Stream to go away quickly after. Throughout the identical yr, El-P would kind his personal label, Definitive Jux, aka Def Jux. The label would launch a slew of impactful underground releases in its tenure, together with these by rappers Aesop Rock and Cannibal Ox.
After years of artist improvement with The Dungeon Household, Killer Mike would lastly have his breakout second that includes on OutKast’s 2000 album Stankonia on the file “Snappin & Trappin.” There was no strategy to take heed to his dynamic verse and never have the identical response as Massive Boi in Cee Lo’s basement.
2001-2002
The lead single from Outkast’s 2001 compilation album Massive Boi and Dre Current… OutKast, “The Entire World,” featured Killer Mike and even earned him his first Grammy Award for Greatest Rap Efficiency by a Duo or Group. He had arrived, and even one-upped himself the next yr, that includes on a mess of tracks, together with two on a Scooby Doo soundtrack and “Poppin Tags” off Jay-Z’s The Blueprint 2.
El-P formally separated himself from the Firm Stream imprint and launched his solo debut on Def Jux, Incredible Harm. It was critically lauded and even appeared at No. 198 on the Billboard 200.
2003-2004
Killer Mike would launch his solo debut, Monster, in 2003, by way of a joint partnership with Massive Boi’s Purple Ribbon Data and Columbia/Sony Data. The album was highlighted by two dynamic lead singles: “Akshon (Yeah!)” feat. OutKast, which might find yourself on Madden 2004, and “A.D.I.D.A.S.” feat. Massive Boi and Sleepy Brown, which reached No. 60 on the U.S. Billboard Sizzling 100. Throughout these two years, Mike additionally saved his characteristic streak alive on OutKast, Chamillionaire, and Pastor Troy tracks. But, a characteristic nobody may ever overlook was additionally launched in 2003 and skyrocketed in 2004. Mike’s verse on Bone Crusher’s “By no means Scared” will at all times be revered as an all-time.
In 2004, El-P and the jazz collective Blue Sequence Continuum (that includes William Parker, Matthew Shipp and Daniel Carter) launched a jazz venture known as Excessive Water.
2005-2010
In a five-year stretch, El-P went on a tear of album releases by way of varied entities. His vary appeared ever-expanding. His Accumulating The Child compilation was launched in 2005, his second solo album, I will Sleep When You are Useless, was launched in 2007 to huge business success, peaking at 78 on the Billboard 200, and in 2010, El-P’s group, Central Providers, launched the EP Perpetually Frozen in Tv Time completely on a digital obtain service on the Def Jux web site.
Killer Mike was in a little bit of an in-between mode from 2005 to 2008. Attributable to a dispute between Massive Boi and Sony, his second album, Ghetto Extraordinary, was indefinitely delayed till Mike himself launched it independently with a brand new title, The Killer, in 2005. Off the heels of this although, Mike launched into his now legendary I Pledge Allegiance To The Grind sequence, which featured ferocious raps and two albums launched on his personal label in 2006 and 2008.
2011-2012
In 2011, as a solo act, El-P signed to Fats Possum Data and launched his third solo album Most cancers 4 Remedy. That very same yr, Jason DeMarco, the Cartoon Community govt chargeable for Grownup Swim, launched Mike and El-P. He obtained them in a studio session the place magic instantly actualized. El-P produced everything of Mike’s 2012 assertion of an album, R.A.P. Music (launched on Williams Avenue Data). The duo then toured collectively to help each their albums and their chemistry, mixed into as distinct a duo as rap has ever witnessed, Run The Jewels.
