WEBVTT - Run The Jewels Return! 0:00:08.200 --> 0:00:14.320 Pushkin. It's been a little over nine months since Rick 0:00:14.400 --> 0:00:17.120 Rubin last interviewed Killer Mike and LP for the show. 0:00:17.480 --> 0:00:19.880 Last time they spoke, Run the Jewels were finishing up 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:23.400 their fourth album at Rick Studio, Shangha Law, and since then, 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:27.760 the world's been upside down, dealing with the pandemic, social unrest, 0:00:28.080 --> 0:00:30.440 and a racial reckoning Unlike anything we've seen in the 0:00:30.520 --> 0:00:33.600 last couple of decades. This album feels like a reflection 0:00:33.880 --> 0:00:36.239 of all of that. Killer Mike and LP have been 0:00:36.320 --> 0:00:39.680 raw since day one, making a career rapping about the 0:00:39.720 --> 0:00:42.200 hypocrisy and injustice that a lot of other people are 0:00:42.280 --> 0:00:45.760 just now waking up to. As Rick says, it makes 0:00:45.800 --> 0:00:49.360 the new album sound almost prophetic. But as you'll hear 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:52.040 them say, they never set out to make protest songs 0:00:52.200 --> 0:00:55.640 or the soundtrack for twenty twenty. They just speak their truth, 0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:58.279 and sometimes that truth is ugly and dark, but can 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:02.360 also be funny and at times downright joyous. This is 0:01:02.400 --> 0:01:09.160 easily my favorite release of the year so far. This 0:01:09.280 --> 0:01:12.160 is broken record Liner notes for the digital age. I'm 0:01:12.200 --> 0:01:19.560 justin Richmond. Rick and Run the Jewels had a lot 0:01:19.640 --> 0:01:21.680 to talk about. We wanted this one to breathe a 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:23.600 little bit to give Killer, Mike and Elfie time to 0:01:23.640 --> 0:01:25.840 really dig into the making of the new album and 0:01:25.920 --> 0:01:29.119 the state of the world. Here's Rick Rubin with Run 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:33.120 the Jewels. Let's talk about the album. Hell yeah, before 0:01:33.240 --> 0:01:38.200 you started, was there any overarching principle in mind going 0:01:38.240 --> 0:01:41.280 into the fourth album? Yeah, it had to be jamming 0:01:41.600 --> 0:01:46.640 and uh and it had to be a retired to aggression. Yeah, 0:01:46.680 --> 0:01:48.880 no doubt. I think we just knew that we wanted 0:01:48.880 --> 0:01:52.440 this record too. We wanted it to be a shotgun 0:01:52.440 --> 0:01:55.360 blast man. We wanted it to be fire and like 0:01:55.400 --> 0:01:57.680 you said, the other one was like water, it was blue, 0:01:57.760 --> 0:02:01.040 it was you know, it was tapping in some sadness 0:02:01.080 --> 0:02:04.280 that we both like naturally kind of tapped into. And 0:02:04.320 --> 0:02:06.240 I don't think we felt that way this time. I 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:08.480 think we felt like ready to kind of like brand 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:11.600 new again. I think we felt ready to rot, crush, kill, destroy, 0:02:11.840 --> 0:02:15.480 like and I think that it was sort of unspoken. 0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:17.880 Me and Mike don't really talk too much about this ship, 0:02:17.960 --> 0:02:20.560 but we but I remember I sort of one of 0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:22.640 the first sessions that we had, I started playing him 0:02:22.680 --> 0:02:24.440 some of the music that I had been making to 0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:26.440 play him because that's what I do. I go and 0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:28.680 I make a bunch of music, and I kind of 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:32.000 picked the things that I think are you know, worthy 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:33.840 of both of us jumping on and playing from Mike 0:02:33.960 --> 0:02:37.320 see how he responds. And one of the first things 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:39.360 I played him was the thing that I wanted the 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:42.679 most for him to like, which was their first song 0:02:42.720 --> 0:02:45.480 on album, Yankee and the Brave, which in a lot 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:48.520 of ways was a return to a lot of the 0:02:48.560 --> 0:02:51.040 older sort of production techniques that I used to use 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:53.960 coming up. I was using, you know, using samplers and 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:57.680 breaks and and kind of filtered through, you know, a 0:02:57.800 --> 0:03:01.000 new understanding of production that had I had gotten to 0:03:01.240 --> 0:03:04.080 through the years of really understanding frequency at low end 0:03:04.120 --> 0:03:06.440 and all of the things that really matter when you're 0:03:06.840 --> 0:03:09.560 you're bumping some shit in the system. But I was 0:03:09.639 --> 0:03:12.040 just praying that Mike got it, you know what I mean, 0:03:12.080 --> 0:03:14.520 like that Mike got what I wanted out of that spirit, 0:03:15.080 --> 0:03:18.440 And of course he did immediately, and he immediately kind 0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:21.359 of like grinned and was like, oh, yeah, this is 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:23.919 this is this is the first jam, you know what 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:27.239 I mean. And we recorded that jam and who and 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:31.480 oh La La same day too, in one day, and 0:03:31.760 --> 0:03:33.919 and I remember even playing the Ship for you actually, 0:03:34.280 --> 0:03:36.440 where I was like, yeah, we don't have much, but 0:03:36.480 --> 0:03:38.840 I think we have like the first like two songs 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:41.760 and and and even you were like, yeah, those are 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:47.080 the first two songs, um right, But yeah it was. 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:50.000 It was undeniable lot of lights. And it was weird though, 0:03:50.040 --> 0:03:52.720 because that's not what normally happens. It's usually like you 0:03:52.840 --> 0:03:54.280 do a bunch of jams and then you figure out 0:03:54.280 --> 0:03:57.200 the order. And this one like really sort of wrote 0:03:57.240 --> 0:04:00.560 itself pretty quickly, like at least the first half of 0:04:00.560 --> 0:04:03.680 the record seemed to like right himself. So I think 0:04:03.680 --> 0:04:05.720 we just wanted to be lean and mean and and 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:11.880 and you know, fucking and carrying flamethrowers. On that first track, 0:04:11.920 --> 0:04:16.040 do you remember what came first lyrically? That was Mike 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:20.200 back at it and at it like that whole pattern. 0:04:20.320 --> 0:04:23.599 I was like, oh shit, Mike is Mike is flipping 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:26.400 on cats. Like immediately he set the tone of that ship. 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:29.880 And that was that to me, that just set the 0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:32.640 tone for the album. Yeah, that that line had been 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:34.320 in my mind, like you're that back at it like 0:04:34.440 --> 0:04:36.760 a crack at it, mister Black, And that that had 0:04:36.760 --> 0:04:39.560 been in my mind like a year, like like, let's 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:41.560 fuck it up. I'm Mike Tyson. You know what I'm saying. 0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:45.800 I'm I believe in starting hard, coming out swinging. Yeah, 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:49.000 ell Is Ell is like Mayweather esque in that he 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:52.680 has the ability to finish. His thoughts are finishing the beautiful, 0:04:52.760 --> 0:04:54.640 Like I don't care how well you think you did 0:04:54.640 --> 0:04:57.240 against Floyd. He gonna take, you know, twelve rounds and 0:04:57.279 --> 0:05:00.600 your weakness is gonna show because his defense is penetrable. 0:05:00.680 --> 0:05:04.039 So but me, I'm coming in, ducking, moving side to side, 0:05:04.040 --> 0:05:06.560 trying to knock your fucking head off. So I had 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:08.719 wanted to that. I wanted that to be the first 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:11.920 line on an album since we finished the last album. 0:05:12.080 --> 0:05:16.320 You know, after I'm done with like an album. It 0:05:16.520 --> 0:05:19.239 for me, it's like I'm already thinking that the next 0:05:19.600 --> 0:05:22.440 Like watching that Michael Jordan's shit like really helped me 0:05:23.000 --> 0:05:27.640 understand that I'm not insane. In my mind, everybody's sleeping 0:05:27.680 --> 0:05:29.719 on me. I don't give a fuck if they're not 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:33.360 sleeping on me, they're sleeping on me. So that's what 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:36.719 I tell myself to get myself ready. And I think 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:40.919 that's part of the reason I'm always leaned toward aggressive rapping. 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:42.960 You know what I'm saying, Even when I'm happy, it 0:05:42.960 --> 0:05:46.160 can sound aggressive. So for me, yeah, I'm like, man, 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:49.839 you motherfucker's still don't get how adult Run the Jewels 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:52.760 is and hear the fuck we go again, And I'm 0:05:52.760 --> 0:05:54.920 gonna feel like that every run of Jews record because 0:05:55.120 --> 0:05:57.159 I don't never want to get complacent, and I don't 0:05:57.160 --> 0:05:59.920 never want to get compliant to whatever the new rule 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:03.120 the sound is. I always want to push. I was 0:06:03.160 --> 0:06:07.880 gonna say there were specific lines in that song that 0:06:07.960 --> 0:06:10.000 when we listened to them in the studio I loved them. 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:14.159 But now when they came out in the world, it 0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:20.240 almost seems like psychic mind reading, Like it's it's really incredible, 0:06:20.880 --> 0:06:24.440 how in the moment the lyrics sound like they're being 0:06:24.480 --> 0:06:27.760 written about what's happening. But I heard them before it 0:06:27.839 --> 0:06:32.080 was happening, and at that time I would say I 0:06:32.080 --> 0:06:34.320 didn't feel any threat of it happening. If it was, 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:38.400 it's remarkable, and that was not long ago. How the 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:41.880 energy shifted. Mike, what do you where do you think 0:06:41.920 --> 0:06:45.359 that comes from? I think that the times are forever 0:06:45.480 --> 0:06:50.599 in always, and you know, the oligarchs of always making 0:06:50.680 --> 0:06:55.760 slaves of us were always resisting. Rome would have crushed, 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:58.360 crumbled two hundred years prior and had it not been 0:06:58.400 --> 0:07:01.960 the circle for the circus. If there is no entertainment, 0:07:02.000 --> 0:07:04.680 if there is no distraction, if there is no what 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:07.080 is the food weekly or what is the next fucking 0:07:07.080 --> 0:07:10.000 app If none of that happens, and you're left to 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:12.880 see the world for what it really raw is. We're 0:07:12.920 --> 0:07:16.760 in a fucking jungle all the time now. Because I 0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:19.720 represent a group of people that happen to be on 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:23.000 the lowest run of that ladder in the most brutal 0:07:23.080 --> 0:07:27.320 capitalistic system in the world, we always see the jungle. 0:07:27.480 --> 0:07:31.320 Even though you can distract yourself with drugs and drinking 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:34.920 and fun, and you know, even in all distractions aren't bad. 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:37.200 Sometimes you just focus in on you and your family. 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:40.679 The jungle still is fucking going on, And I think 0:07:40.720 --> 0:07:43.800 that what you know, for me, it's like everybody start 0:07:43.880 --> 0:07:48.000 paying attention at the exact same time. So the lyrics 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:50.120 that I've been wrapping for seven I met with the 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:53.840 Black Panthers yesterday, very good meeting. A lot of these 0:07:53.880 --> 0:07:57.679 people are in their seventies and have given over fifty 0:07:57.760 --> 0:08:00.440 years of their life to the revolution and the struggle 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:04.280 for the proletariat to overcome you know what we are overcoming. 0:08:04.760 --> 0:08:08.320 And you know, the first thing I said, besides thanking 0:08:08.360 --> 0:08:10.960 them for putting me next to cardib in our open letter, 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:13.520 was Hey, I've been waiting for you guys to call 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:17.560 me seventeen years, and I've actively been shouting y'all out. 0:08:18.360 --> 0:08:20.520 I have been representing for people like me two New 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:24.920 Shapur Asida Shapur, you know, include them and out limits 0:08:25.000 --> 0:08:27.600 to people like Nni Pelter in the American Indian Movement 0:08:27.640 --> 0:08:30.200 and things of that nature. So I'm like, I'm fucking 0:08:30.320 --> 0:08:33.559 glad that you no longer look at rappers is simply 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:36.839 the minstrual class to be used by you or the 0:08:36.960 --> 0:08:40.120 other side to repeat. But I'm glad you're engaging me 0:08:40.160 --> 0:08:43.199 as an organizer because for me, that's what this ship 0:08:43.320 --> 0:08:46.000 is about. Music and art represent the times when Nina 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:48.800 Simons as an artist duty to represent the time. So 0:08:49.400 --> 0:08:52.880 I'm glad that the words hit people, but they're always true. 0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:56.319 Before Eric Garner, I can't breathe. It is true. Post 0:08:56.480 --> 0:08:58.960 Eric Garner, I can't breathe. It is true. And unless 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:02.319 we do something to to resist the state and it's 0:09:02.440 --> 0:09:06.440 tearing it over us, using authoritarian using our own citizens, 0:09:06.440 --> 0:09:09.520 fellow citizens of authority figures to the most brutal extent. 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:12.160 Then those songs will always be relevant. It's just when 0:09:12.200 --> 0:09:15.920 the people choose to pay attention, and that that's the difference. 0:09:15.960 --> 0:09:18.079 There is no going to the movies, There is no 0:09:18.760 --> 0:09:21.800 you know, distracting yourself from what's going on right now, 0:09:22.080 --> 0:09:25.040 because everybody's the fucking size. So you know, I'm glad 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:29.160 they got it. So if the jungle is ongoing, can 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:34.560 you be optimistic? Absolutely? Why would you be? You know? Why? Why? 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:37.920 Why deny yourself happiness in the midst of it? You know, 0:09:38.040 --> 0:09:41.120 I don't, I don't know. All I know is for 0:09:41.280 --> 0:09:45.000 four hundred and one years, my people have been here, 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:47.600 and it's been a hellacious four hundred and one years. 0:09:47.880 --> 0:09:50.199 And for four hundred and one years they have resisted, 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:52.319 and for four one hundred and one years they have 0:09:52.440 --> 0:09:56.679 found joy in times of brutal sadness. My grandparents, you know, 0:09:57.040 --> 0:09:59.800 I remember asking my grandmother. You know, I'm a young 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:03.160 pocass kid. We raised my grandparents, you know, me and 0:10:03.280 --> 0:10:05.679 my sisters we don't get air Jordan's, but you know, 0:10:06.000 --> 0:10:08.760 what matters to get the sixty dollars, nikes at Marshall, 0:10:08.840 --> 0:10:11.160 so our whole shit. We don't think we're rich. We 0:10:11.200 --> 0:10:13.800 don't understand how rich we are. Until one day we 0:10:13.880 --> 0:10:16.040 asked our grandmother, what did you get for Christmas? Now, 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:19.640 my grandmother's from a landowning family. They have a farm, 0:10:19.720 --> 0:10:22.800 but they're still working a farm. They wear potato sack dresses, 0:10:22.960 --> 0:10:25.320 and she said, we'd be lucky to get potato sack 0:10:25.400 --> 0:10:28.800 drawls and a bag of fruit. And I'm thinking bag 0:10:28.880 --> 0:10:33.280 of fucking brute for Christmas underwear, Like what the fuck 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:36.319 kind of Untie Linda underwear? Given ass? Shit is this? 0:10:36.720 --> 0:10:41.480 And my grandfather said she what Christmas? I had two 0:10:41.559 --> 0:10:43.199 sisters and I had to work, and I was in 0:10:43.240 --> 0:10:46.959 the third grade, and I'm thinking, you're nine in the 0:10:47.120 --> 0:10:50.400 third grade. There is no such thing as Christmas for him, 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:53.640 and there has never been until he starts a family 0:10:53.679 --> 0:10:56.040 and his wife and his children and grandchildren. But I 0:10:56.559 --> 0:11:00.240 realized then that what was or I realized then more 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:04.520 and more now that happiness is not Currently are always 0:11:04.600 --> 0:11:07.840 defined by the wows of the jungle coming on us. 0:11:08.280 --> 0:11:10.280 Even if you're on a hunt, you're gonna find time 0:11:10.360 --> 0:11:13.679 to laugh, even if you're being hunted and you evadue capture, 0:11:14.000 --> 0:11:17.480 You're gonna find time to last. Enjoy is the greatest 0:11:17.559 --> 0:11:21.120 anecdote for pain I have seen in the last two years, 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:24.760 you know, three or four years, my mother died via 0:11:24.880 --> 0:11:27.880 a telephone. I've seen a young niece of my wife 0:11:27.920 --> 0:11:30.920 and I is dies cancer and never lost their joy 0:11:31.440 --> 0:11:33.599 through it all, you know what I'm saying. So in 0:11:33.720 --> 0:11:37.320 the jungle, that's really all you have. The ability to love, 0:11:37.679 --> 0:11:41.280 the ability to comfort one another, to experience joy and 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:45.080 the euphoria of surviving together. There's there's you know, as 0:11:45.120 --> 0:11:48.840 an adrenaline junkie. You know, my man Carlos, who's an 0:11:48.840 --> 0:11:51.960 amazing comedian, a wild and out said man. Being black 0:11:52.120 --> 0:11:55.480 is dangerous and count of fun as fuck. So I 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:59.079 think the people, for regular people, the jungle is dangerous, 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:01.640 it is wild, but it's it's it's at times you've 0:12:01.640 --> 0:12:04.360 got a smile because you know you want a crap, 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:06.400 but it's fun as fun. That's one of the things 0:12:06.440 --> 0:12:09.319 about Run the Jewels to me, that's so beautiful that 0:12:09.679 --> 0:12:14.160 because these records are funny and joyous, and these records 0:12:14.200 --> 0:12:17.040 aren't hopeless, You're not You're not talking to two dudes 0:12:17.040 --> 0:12:21.360 who have lost hope. You're hearing two dudes fighting for 0:12:21.480 --> 0:12:25.600 their hope. You're hearing two dudes, you know, giving their 0:12:25.679 --> 0:12:32.560 take on hope. Hope doesn't mean blindness, Hope doesn't mean unawareness. 0:12:32.960 --> 0:12:36.439 You know, those two things are not, you know, codependent. 0:12:37.720 --> 0:12:40.760 And I love the fact that we could make a 0:12:40.880 --> 0:12:45.439 record that is intense at times and speaks to, you know, 0:12:46.679 --> 0:12:48.760 the shit that's going on in a real way that 0:12:48.960 --> 0:12:52.680 is painful, but doesn't leave you feeling drained and depressed, 0:12:52.720 --> 0:12:55.400 and doesn't leave you feeling hurt. It leaves you feeling 0:12:55.520 --> 0:13:00.920 hopefully energized and excited. Um and in a typical way 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:04.800 not you know, I think the people underestimate the value 0:13:05.360 --> 0:13:08.599 of honesty, you know, and how invigorating that could be, 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:13.200 like like how energetic honesty can be. The record ending 0:13:13.360 --> 0:13:15.400 the way that it ended was important, you know, the 0:13:15.520 --> 0:13:18.520 record ending like we're in front of a firing squad 0:13:19.160 --> 0:13:23.320 and we are giving our summation of what makes us 0:13:23.559 --> 0:13:26.000 us and the reason why we do what we do 0:13:26.240 --> 0:13:28.760 in the form of sort of relating it back to 0:13:28.920 --> 0:13:32.079 personal stories about the women in our lives and some 0:13:32.200 --> 0:13:34.719 of the inspiration and some of the struggle that that 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:37.280 sort of leads us to who we are, and then 0:13:37.360 --> 0:13:40.319 the last line is fuck you two and and then 0:13:40.400 --> 0:13:42.319 you get into Yankee and the Brave and Yankee and 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:45.640 the Brave Is this stupid TV show via the nineteen 0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:48.880 early nineteen eighties like dutsa Hazard or night Rider and 0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:54.679 the Rascally you know, the rascal anti heroes somehow escape 0:13:54.720 --> 0:13:57.360 with their lives and then sped off together in a 0:13:57.720 --> 0:14:00.600 in a bureau grant National, you know, to smoke more 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:04.160 weed and fucko and and and and and fight another day. 0:14:04.360 --> 0:14:08.360 And that, to me is always the reason why I'm 0:14:08.400 --> 0:14:11.400 grateful that my partnership but Mike exists because I think 0:14:11.440 --> 0:14:14.000 that I went I'd struggled for a long time to 0:14:14.200 --> 0:14:16.360 find that type of voice, and I needed a friend 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:19.480 to help me, to help me have that type of 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:23.160 voice where I wanted to my music in the way 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:26.040 that I used to write it could. It was often 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:29.320 very heavy. But I don't think I always nailed I 0:14:29.400 --> 0:14:32.600 don't think I always nailed the energy of hope, you 0:14:32.680 --> 0:14:34.120 know what I mean. I don't think and I don't 0:14:34.160 --> 0:14:36.120 think hope has to be a statement and you don't 0:14:36.160 --> 0:14:39.560 have to say everything might be okay. So that's not 0:14:39.680 --> 0:14:43.520 that's not hope. That's that's delusion um or that's you know, 0:14:43.600 --> 0:14:47.400 wishful thinking, not necessarily delusion. Maybe it's just wishful thinking. 0:14:47.480 --> 0:14:50.040 But you don't have to say that. You just have 0:14:50.200 --> 0:14:54.640 to convey a spirit of fighting another day, I think, 0:14:54.800 --> 0:14:57.880 and that's something that might help round out for me. 0:14:58.080 --> 0:15:00.760 Like I'm I listened to some of my earlier music 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:03.840 and while I'm proud of it, the reason why I 0:15:04.080 --> 0:15:06.680 love Being and Run the Jewels as an artist now 0:15:07.200 --> 0:15:11.280 is because it took our friendship to find this other space, 0:15:11.480 --> 0:15:13.240 you know what I mean, which is like, yeah, okay, 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:15.560 you know what, I can actually talk about this stuff. 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:19.760 But there's another zone. There's another way to talk about 0:15:19.840 --> 0:15:23.760 this shit that doesn't leave, that doesn't leave you feeling 0:15:24.000 --> 0:15:27.760 beat down. It feels more of a more evolved position, 0:15:28.000 --> 0:15:29.800 is what it feels like. I think. So, I mean, 0:15:29.880 --> 0:15:33.120 I think that our friendship has evolved us as artists. 0:15:33.640 --> 0:15:37.400 It's really interesting when you have someone who makes where 0:15:37.440 --> 0:15:40.200 you find that pocket where that where someone else and 0:15:40.360 --> 0:15:44.320 their ideas, although strictly their ideas and strictly their personality, 0:15:44.320 --> 0:15:48.200 it's nothing that you would ever think of, right, but 0:15:48.560 --> 0:15:52.320 yet somehow they really do kind of complete your you know, 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:56.240 your personality as an artist, it allows you to play 0:15:56.320 --> 0:15:59.160 your position stronger. It allows you to be who you 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:02.200 are strong it because you know that there's a balance, 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:06.360 you know, and it allows you to represent certain things 0:16:06.600 --> 0:16:09.880 that in a different way that you couldn't say, you know, 0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:12.840 like I can't. I can't say the stuff that might says. 0:16:13.240 --> 0:16:15.640 It's not it's not my life, it's not my personality, 0:16:15.640 --> 0:16:18.840 it's not who. But but I can stand in it. 0:16:19.320 --> 0:16:21.840 I can stand with it, and I can show up 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:24.800 for it, you know, and and and and be myself 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:28.240 and and it. You know, in that regard, it's like, um, 0:16:28.600 --> 0:16:30.880 it's really refreshing for me. And that's why I keep 0:16:30.960 --> 0:16:33.560 doing it. It makes it a strong collaboration and the 0:16:33.640 --> 0:16:37.200 fact that you're both so different but together make something 0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:42.440 that's bigger than the individual. It's it's really cool, right exactly. 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:45.640 We'll be back with Run the Jewels after quick break. 0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:52.920 We're back with Rick and Run the Jewels. We never 0:16:53.000 --> 0:16:54.800 talked about this before, but how did the band? How 0:16:54.840 --> 0:16:57.160 did the band start? I know we're mainly talking about 0:16:57.200 --> 0:16:59.280 the new album that because we just talked so recently, 0:16:59.360 --> 0:17:01.960 But last time we talk we didn't really get into 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:05.199 how you guys started doing this together. Well, I did. 0:17:05.600 --> 0:17:09.359 I produced Mike's album Rap Music, and that was the 0:17:09.440 --> 0:17:11.840 first project we did together, and I was just magic. 0:17:11.920 --> 0:17:15.320 I think we both were just just loved that and 0:17:15.880 --> 0:17:20.600 it just felt really, really great. I definitely recognized way 0:17:20.720 --> 0:17:23.159 before Elle, this is a marriage made in heaven. And 0:17:23.280 --> 0:17:25.760 I say that in a good way, like like like 0:17:26.000 --> 0:17:28.120 the world had beat my buddy up. Man, it had 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:31.200 been some assholes out there of my main But I'm 0:17:31.240 --> 0:17:34.200 just hopelessly optimistic and I'm a romantic and I knew 0:17:34.240 --> 0:17:37.159 the first three beats Elle ever played me that for 0:17:37.240 --> 0:17:40.520 the rest of my career, this motherfucker's gonna be producing me. 0:17:41.080 --> 0:17:44.000 And after the first time we went out on the 0:17:44.119 --> 0:17:47.000 road together, it's run the Jewels Word and my manager 0:17:47.400 --> 0:17:50.080 for the party managing Circle Joe's City right next to me. 0:17:50.440 --> 0:17:52.399 When I got off the buff, Joe was like, so, 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:54.480 what we're gonna do now? You give back to solo 0:17:54.600 --> 0:17:57.880 album like asps a fucking lutely not I'm gonna rap 0:17:58.000 --> 0:18:00.879 group like And that was dick like for me. That 0:18:01.160 --> 0:18:03.720 was it's nothing else to say, Like I loved his 0:18:03.880 --> 0:18:06.960 dude as a human being. He smoked cigarettes, but I 0:18:07.080 --> 0:18:09.760 walked away and then I come back. I love his 0:18:10.160 --> 0:18:14.240 his want for good, even on his meanness. Honrea's day, 0:18:14.680 --> 0:18:18.000 it is about you know, he wants, he wants everything 0:18:18.080 --> 0:18:20.840 to be okay. Like Ell is not as cynical as 0:18:20.880 --> 0:18:24.240 people would have thought. The LP you know was, But 0:18:24.400 --> 0:18:27.200 the motherfucker was just genuine and dope and he made 0:18:27.280 --> 0:18:32.760 the illest makes the illest shit ever. And I'm just like, 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:34.960 as a rap, as a kid who grew up on 0:18:35.080 --> 0:18:38.520 deaf jam, no ass kissing, how could you not want 0:18:38.560 --> 0:18:40.879 to make the illest shit ever? Every time? Like I 0:18:41.000 --> 0:18:43.359 still remember when the fuck I went and picked up 0:18:43.400 --> 0:18:47.000 the Unbad album and with my own money by myself. 0:18:47.359 --> 0:18:50.480 That's how LP beats made me feel every time I rapped. 0:18:50.760 --> 0:18:52.760 So for me, I was just like, this is it 0:18:53.119 --> 0:18:56.000 and all had definitely by it. After the first six 0:18:56.080 --> 0:18:58.200 months albums this we just knew we're going to be 0:18:58.320 --> 0:19:02.439 making records. But the group together, I think ultimately because 0:19:02.520 --> 0:19:05.840 of the Rap Music Album, which is classic, and thank 0:19:06.000 --> 0:19:08.639 thank God for Jason DeMarco putting us together. But I 0:19:08.800 --> 0:19:12.960 think Jason DeMarco, who I always get credit to, is 0:19:13.040 --> 0:19:16.880 the wizard in this movie. He's the person that saw 0:19:17.080 --> 0:19:20.120 from a beat and rap perspective, but from a personality 0:19:20.400 --> 0:19:24.119 respective perspective that we could potentially lock in. Because when 0:19:24.160 --> 0:19:27.320 I called him excited going crazy the first album, it's 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:31.000 just rap music, he said, I was hoping you guys 0:19:31.040 --> 0:19:33.040 would like each other. And you say that because I 0:19:33.119 --> 0:19:35.120 was like, Jason, he has to produced album, and Jason 0:19:35.280 --> 0:19:36.879 was like, I'm going to figure it out. So in 0:19:37.040 --> 0:19:39.840 my mind's eye, if this is the illustrated novel, like 0:19:40.080 --> 0:19:44.200 Jason literally is mister Glass, you know, his job was 0:19:44.240 --> 0:19:46.760 to pull the superhero out of both of us and 0:19:46.880 --> 0:19:49.800 put us together and say and say, well here it is, 0:19:49.880 --> 0:19:51.560 you know what I mean. So it's funny though, because 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:54.040 and that's all true, but the way they run the 0:19:54.119 --> 0:19:58.480 Jewels started was way more accidental because even though we 0:19:58.600 --> 0:20:01.760 had already been that's the origin story of us meeting. 0:20:02.320 --> 0:20:05.280 I already had plans for you, man, I had policten 0:20:05.359 --> 0:20:07.280 when you called me to do the mixtape. And I've 0:20:07.320 --> 0:20:09.440 never said this to you when you called me to 0:20:09.520 --> 0:20:11.480 do a mixtape. When when you was like, I gotta 0:20:11.480 --> 0:20:14.480 turn the mixtape I write slow, Joe was like, you're 0:20:14.480 --> 0:20:15.720 gonna go up there, you just gonna do it. An 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:17.880 I was like I don't give a fuck. I say, 0:20:17.920 --> 0:20:21.080 I'm gonna get back on his shit. It's something there. 0:20:21.440 --> 0:20:24.680 I told you. I said it's something there based off UTA. 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:27.560 I'm just like I'm supposed to be rapping. I would 0:20:27.600 --> 0:20:29.600 have wrapped twenty albums with you for free. Said that 0:20:29.680 --> 0:20:31.920 I didn't give a fuck. I really and I remember 0:20:31.920 --> 0:20:33.680 you're saying to beyo, Mike, there's no money. He was like, 0:20:33.720 --> 0:20:35.760 I already have. I I don't give a shit. I 0:20:35.840 --> 0:20:38.040 just wanted to because I knew the more we did 0:20:38.119 --> 0:20:41.560 it together, the better the chances of us keeping doing 0:20:41.640 --> 0:20:44.439 it together was. And I was in love, Like if 0:20:44.480 --> 0:20:46.600 I compared it to my to my relationship, was saying 0:20:46.600 --> 0:20:48.639 to my wife at that point, even though I was 0:20:48.680 --> 0:20:51.040 still a line cheap dog. The first year, I just 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:52.440 knew I was in love. I was just like, this 0:20:52.560 --> 0:20:54.400 is who the fuck Mary. So even if I would 0:20:54.400 --> 0:20:57.399 have went and did ten other projects with other producers 0:20:57.680 --> 0:21:01.239 at that point, I never wanted to be produceduced by 0:21:01.359 --> 0:21:05.880 anybody in that way, but LP so out there. Yeah. 0:21:06.200 --> 0:21:08.639 It's one of the things that's really unique for you 0:21:08.800 --> 0:21:10.879 guys in today's world is, first of all, you're a 0:21:10.960 --> 0:21:15.800 rap group. There's almost none and you're a rap group 0:21:16.640 --> 0:21:21.440 that has a singular production style. Nobody, not even individual 0:21:21.560 --> 0:21:24.920 rappers have that anymore. Nobody is coming from one place 0:21:25.400 --> 0:21:29.800 production style. It's always a lot of voices musically on 0:21:30.040 --> 0:21:33.520 every on every album. So this is a very unique 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:39.639 throwback situation. Yet it sounds yet it sounds super modern 0:21:39.680 --> 0:21:42.760 at the same time. It's it's like traditional and cutting 0:21:42.880 --> 0:21:45.440 edge mixed in one. But again, but yeah, we but 0:21:45.560 --> 0:21:48.240 we we me and mine both grew up on all 0:21:48.359 --> 0:21:50.879