Every decade has music that defines it for specific people, sometimes spanning out into genre, sometimes it is an artist that defines other artists. For Folk music, many would turn to Bob Dylan. When asking for a Rock group, it is Queen. For the 60s, it’s The Beatles. For the ’80s and Pop, it’s Michael Jackson. My point is when you think of the 2000s you think of Avril Lavigne, Gwen Steffani, Katy Perry, and Lady Gaga, among others. This decade, labeled “the teens“, has almost no one to define it. Taylor Swift? She started to establish herself in the latter half of the ’00s.

At the ripe old age of 21, I can not tell you a single artist in the charts this year. As a music tutor to teenagers, I hear names and look at these children as one would look at a brick wall. “Cool.” would be my response, as I look at this beige wall of music. I have no desire to listen to the UK’s BBC Radio 1 as it is filled with beige walls to stare at. The last time I heard an actual radio station was Radio 2 as Graham Norton played something from 2009, and Radio 4 as they spoke gibberish.

The soundtracks of video games tailored most of my music tastes, even my taste in radio stations. Most notably Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as it has some great Country, Hip-Hop, Funk, Rock, and talk radio stations. So it should be no surprise that another open-world game has influenced my tastes once again. Out of a massive eighty-four track soundtrack, one group new to my ears has become an obsession.

Run The Jewels is the collaboration between two established underground rappers who have made waves for themselves. Michael “Killer Mike” Render is a rapper, actor, and activist, who made his debut on Outkast’s 2000 album, Stankonia. Jamie “El-P” Meline is also a songwriter, musician, record producer, record executive, and rapper, who made his own debut back in the duo, Company Flow, which rapper Bigg Jus would later join. These two would later become Run The Jewels.

Now personally, I have nothing against Rap or Hip-Hop. I just happen to have an old man’s mentality when it comes to music, from N.W.A and Run D.M.C to The Sugarhill Gang. My tastes have almost always been tailored towards what can now be called, “classic Hip-Hop”. My entire Spotify could be mistaken for being that of a bipolar, British-American, stoner woman in her forties with a penchant to appear classy by listening to classical music. To cut the story short, Rap and Hip-Hop is not the first choice of a very white, Scottish, twenty-something, who would fit in at a Pink Floyd concert.

I remember when I was young, my brother would play his music, not at an appropriate level, but loud enough the stadium a quarter of a mile away would be drowned out. His tastes were Electronic, Rap, House music, and everything I hated. My own were attuned to all those tracks on the GTA: San Andreas soundtrack, which had come out in the months prior. I’d come to detest not only modern Rap but also this Eminem character that had been blasting out of speakers for a while. I’d come to make a blanket statement that all white Rap was useless; I still do in some cases, primarily that of white Australian teenagers riding a boat.

So I must say the line, “There’s one black, one white, we shoot to kill…“, in Oh My Darling Don’t Cry is the easiest way to say: “Well, don’t I look stupid now.” My favorite Rap duo is not only modern but also partially white. They are what should define the decade when compared to other artists, some of which are probably really good to some people, but don’t stand out the way Run The Jewels do. I mean, I love Kacey Musgraves’ second and third albums, I’ve been told Lana Del Rey is good alongside John Legend, but everyone else seems to be of the previous decade or further back. The rest are either bland or rose to fame and fizzled out of existence since.

Warning: The following video may contain language unsuitable for children.

I guess this is the best part of the position Run The Jewels have. Hiding in plain sight being featured in Watch_Dogs 2, Baby Driver, Venom, Black Panther, FIFA 18, and Rick and Morty, alongside touring with Lorde. Yet, I still find myself having to show people this group, to then be told how much this person admires Run The Jewels. They are an underappreciated group that I’m sure you’ll have come across, yet never realized who it was.

Now, admittedly I have my own issues with Run The Jewels, as their first album is lacking the energy the latter two have. If I’m honest, I can’t enjoy it much beyond the title track because there isn’t this “flow” that makes Run The Jewels who they are. The best way I’ve found to explain this is to tell you to listen to two tracks from each album; they can be any track because I want you to play them on shuffle.

This is something you can do with their original album, Run the Jewels, because it is a Rap album much like any other. You will find difficulty enjoying RTJ2 or 3 the same way, as each track flows perfectly into each other. The end of All Due Respect and beginning of Love Again (Akinyele Back) may be completely distinct, but it is the energy that keeps you going because there is no fade or break, aside from your own neck as Run The Jewels don’t wait for you to be ready for them. Either you catch on or you don’t like them.

So what has been the point of my long-winded posturing? Well, I can’t think of another artist or group that stand out next to Run The Jewels. They have not only shown that two men in their late thirties/early forties can make a splash in the industry but also become one of the biggest underground artists right now. This along with rapping about everything from social issues, prison reform, political discord, the death of friends, and even sex; I can’t find another artist like them.

In fact, the artist that is closest to them on his ability to rap or sing about anything and do it as well is, Childish Gambino. Though I would argue Gambino is less about Rap with his album, “Awaken, My Love!”, which in itself is a beautiful mess of Funk and Psychedelic Rock. However, it is almost a concept album about having sex with someone’s mother while getting high on a medicinal substance.

It is the ease that Mike and El have from referencing ’80s wrestling in a rap that is partially a general dis-track, and partially telling people to be vigilant that those at the top are the rapists. To follow that up with a rap about prison and the reform thereof, with the final verse being delivered by, Zack De La Rocha of Rage Against the Machine. He then references Batman‘s Gotham, Rakim Allah, and plea bargains. Not only beautifully crafted lyrics, but the beat between the two go from walking pace to almost a run, yet flow perfectly.

This is not the only collaboration between Mike, El, and artists outside of Rap as their mainstream success. The most notable of which are Kamasi Washington, Zack de la Rocha, and of all people, Travis Barker. Those are the ones featured, while Michael Winslow does robot voices, Danger Mouse on piano, and activist Nadezhda Tolokonnikova providing vocals.

In conclusion, Run The Jewels are one of the most creative, adventurous, and talented groups out there. Mike may say at the end of a performance at NPR’s Tiny Desk that Run The Jewels are not a political group, and while they don’t subscribe to promoting parties, they do advocate for personal freedom. Run The Jewels are one of the only artists out there politically advocating for both sides, and this is why I find them so important. With their coming fourth album slated for later this year, I can not wait to hear what Killer Mike and El-P have to say after a three-year interim between albums.

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