I saw El-P perform live for the first time in 2013. The stage, situated under the I-65 overpass at Louisville, Kentucky’s Forecastle festival, sat a stone’s throw from both the Ohio River and a decoratively beached yacht, so it felt preternaturally appropriate when El stood next to his partner in rhyme, Killer Mike, and rattl...

Before Killer Mike and El-P teamed up as the fearsome rap duo Run The Jewels last year, El produced all of Mike’s great 2012 album R.A.P. Music. And today, for whatever reason, Mike has given us the video for the rumbling album track “Ghetto Gospel.” In directors Trevor Kane and Carlos Haynes’s clip, Mike ...

YouTube comments are a murky water to wade through, but Killer Mike & El-P have decided to address some of the ones people left on their video for the incredible roundhouse kick of a track “36 Chain.” Considering that these two have the best bromance of any rap duo right now, it’s fun to watch [...]

The recently relaunched rap-and-stuff magazine Mass Appeal has a pretty great idea for a recurring web-video series: Rhythm Roulette, in which rap producers will blunder blindfolded into record stores, grab three records at random, and then have to make a beat by sampling them. The first test-subject of the series is El-P, a great choice [...]

The parallel is both obvious and ludicrous, and I kind of hate myself for making it, but just bear with me for a minute. Two years ago, a ferocious veteran rapper and a boundary-smashing, synth-addicted rapper/producer, two guys who’d been friends and collaborators for a long time, got together, as a duo, to make an [...]