Run the Jewels

Two of the more progressive figures in hip-hop, El-P and Killer Mike were friends and collaborators before they officially banded together as Run the Jewels. Founder of the Definitive Jux label and former leader of Company Flow, Brooklyn native El-P (real name Jaime Meline) was a sonic maverick who collaborated with jazzmen (Matthew Shipp) and experimental rockers (Trent Reznor, the Mars Volta) and whose lyrics were drenched in politics, sci-fi and trippy free-association. Atlanta rapper Killer Mike (Michael Render) first came to fame as an OutKast associate, but his own work was harder-core, sometimes fiercely political and sometimes just plain fierce. The pair first hooked up in 2011, when El-P produced Mike's R.A.P. Music and Mike appeared on his Cancer for Cure; the two then toured together and announced Run the Jewels' formation soon after. Each of their first two albums, in 2013 and 2014, was initially released as a free download. Both combined cathartic, rage-filled lyrics with El-P's typically dense and wide-ranging production. The second album received what may be the most off-the-wall remix ever: True to its name, Meow the Jewels was the original album with its instruments replaced by cat noises-not just meows but bells, scratches and deep bass via a slowed-down purr. El-P explained that it was, at the very least, the best cat-noise record ever made. The duo made a few high-profile appearances including Coachella, Bonnaroo and a Madison Square Garden show with Jack White. The next album was conceived, according to Killer Mike, to be both meaner and funnier. Released digitally on Christmas Eve 2016, Run the Jewels 3 upped the ante on their political rage, even blasting CNN's Don Lemon at one point for demonizing the protestors against police violence in Ferguson, Missouri. With a specific call-out to the new administration on "2100," it ranked as hip-hop's first major statement of the Trump era.