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HHNP Bonus Episode - RTJ1 · Hip-Hop Now Podcast

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  Coming up on hip Hop Now podcast Run the Jewels. Welcome to hip Hop
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  Now podcasts. If you're from the future, you know what to do.
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  Show outside of so disrespect the leg hip hop and say this day, let's
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  get right into the business. What up, y'all? I am your host,
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  Vegas. This is a hip Hop Now Podcast bonus episode brought to you
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  by the supporters over at patreon dot com slash hip Hop Now and if you
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  would like to become a supporter of this podcast, visit the link in the
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  description of this episode. It's really easy, you know what I'm saying.
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  Big shout out to all the hip hop fans out there, fifty years of
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  hip hop, whether you be brand new or you're you're old and crusty and
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  just bitter than them, you know what I mean. Everybody is welcome.
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  Sometimes the hip hop police is necessary, but not today. Not today.
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  We got a very special episode for y'all, man, And this is really
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  personal for me. Let me just put it that way, because as a
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  hip hop fan, I have always searched for a variety in the music.
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  Obviously back in the days, early in the hip hop's history or whatever.
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  Fifty years of hip hop, you know the sound of the music was generally
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  the same even when it was regional. Right, West coast sound like West
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  coast, East coast sound like East coast, South sound like South, et
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  cetera, et cetera. But as we reach fifty years of hip hop,
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  we see how the music has evolved to honestly have what some would call subgenres.
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  Right, so let's just start like this, prime hip hop, Prime,
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  the blueprint, the standard, the barrier you have to reach first when
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  you call yourself a hip hop head. It's boom back. That's where it
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  all started. That's I'm not going to give you the history of hip hop.
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  I have an episode all about that, but that is the barrier,
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  that's prime boom Back. And then we got into more like funk laced hip
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  hop and jazz vase based hip hop. And then you have your your trap,
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  you have your bounce, you have your p funk, G funk,
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  all these different styles of hip hop throughout the years, which is pretty dope,
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  and I've been a fan of most of it. To be on,
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  it's just because I prefer variety. I'd rather not listen to two hundred hip
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  hop artists and producers who produce based off the same exact blueprint. That's not
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  what hip hop is. Hip Hop is about being creative and looking for what's
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  next, expanding the genre and what's possible not only with your lyrics and your
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  delivery, but also production and production techniques like A Jay's Della and some of
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  the work you see from like hip Boy and classics like Rizzler and Premiere.
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  You know what I'm saying, what DJ Quick does so you see it across
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  the board. You see all the different styles, and there was a point
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  in time where I started to think maybe this is it, you know,
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  which wasn't a bad thing because we had enough styles of hip hop anyway.
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  And even though I will say what I'm talking about today may not have influenced
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  the genre as a whole, it has made a huge impact on the game
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  where I believe there is some influence, but it's just not as blatant as
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  you would expect. And that is Run the Jewels, Killer, Mike,
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  and LP. I'm a big fan of all four. Run the Jews even
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  though number three, I ain't gonna lie, it's probably the weakest out of
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  the three. But I think that was a whole different story as far as
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  fatigue or whatever. But when Run the Jews hit the scene, I remember
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  just feeling like, Wow, this is different, right, familiar but different.
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  We know LP from Brooklyn, we know Killer Mike from Atlanta. We
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  never thought that them two parent together would mean anything monumental, could be dope,
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  right, but we didn't expect this, and just really quick. As
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  a comparison, I remember when jay Z dropped Magna Carta Holy Ground and there
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  was a few tracks on there. I believed, forgive me if I'm wrong,
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  but I believe that Farrell produced that kind of had almost this electronic drumming
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  based kind of sound, right, And I thought it was cool, right
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  because I liked it. It was like the type of records you make because
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  you know you're going to perform him in a stadium and you talk about jay
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  Z, so of course, but there was something that was missing, right,
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  and I think it was what was missing lyrically. Lyrically it was the
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  same thing, right, braggadocious rhymes, king of New York hip hop talk,
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  you know, And I really liked that from jay Z, but it
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  just didn't do anything at the end of the day for me, and I
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  stumbled across Run the Jews in twenty thirteen, and I was like, this
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  is it, right? This is it? This is that sound combine with
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  a little bit of a hip hop feel to it, right rhymes from Killer
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  Mic that can come across as hardcore and conscious, right and free. Same
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  thing with LP, you know what I'm saying. And they just played off
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  each other so well along with this sound that I was kind of blown away
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  by it because it was it's exciting, right, it was something new.
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  So again, Run the Jews is one of my favorite groups, probably of
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  all time. I think they deserved that kind of respect. If you've listened
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  to their albums, you'll know why, and say what I say. If
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  you love that new Killer Mic album, you know why we love Run the
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  Jewels. A lot of that is embedded in his bars and Run the Jewels,
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  so really quick, let's just go a little bit of the history,
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  and didn't talk about what's next and the album itself, So just a little
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  background that I'm seeing here. From two thousand and twelve, Killer Mike and
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  LP combined forces on each other's solo albums, LP's album Cancer for Cure and
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  Killer Mike's album Rap Music, and they wound up touring together, and according
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  to their website, they liked it so much that they formed a group right
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  because they found a lot of things that was common beyond their birthdays being kind
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  of close, but just that common love for hip hop, like real hip
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  hop history, you know, boom back, the glory days, you know,
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  whatever it may be. And they decided to form a group called Run
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  the Jewels Right, And in twenty thirteen, they dropped their debut album for
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  free, which, if I'm not mistaken, wound up crashing the damn site
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  that it was available for. Ten songs. Production included obviously LP who produces,
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  but also a little Shalamar and Wilder Zobe and features Big Boy until the
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  Ribbon breaks and Prince Paul on the album Now y'all know me. Ten songs,
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  Shit, that's right up my alley, you know what I mean,
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  not too long, not too short. You just rock out and then you
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  get out right or you repeat, you hit that rewound, whatever it may
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  be. And I just remember when this joint dropped dropped, I was just
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  like, Dan, this is this is crazy, this is new. Some
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  of the stand out tracks for me are obviously the title track, Run the
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  Jewels, Banana Clipper featuring big Boy Job Well Done, Get It thirty six
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  inch Chain. I could damn then name the whole album at standout tracks.
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  It just was to me that that dope of a record. And I think
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  when you look at twenty thirteen right where you have jay Z dropping Magna Carta,
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  Holy Grail, Kendrick not that long either before that had dropped a Good
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  Kid Matt City, I believe, but hip hop was at a certain state
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  where everything was cool and there was variety, but it was sort of like
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  in a loop, right, because as much as I love Good Kid Matt
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  City in a lot of ways, it's not something that we've never heard before
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  as far is the total package that the album was. It was great for
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  its time as Kendricks stories, different beats, as new, but there was
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  a lot of nostalgia and how the album played out with all the skits,
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  a lot of nostalgia with the features on there from Snoop to NC eight and
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  stuff like that. Again, jay Z's kind of continuing that art gallery kind
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  of vibe that Kanye was on, and he was on with Kanye with Watched
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  the Throne with Magna Carter, Holy Grail and Run the Jewels debut reminds me
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  a lot of Camp Low, right, And I'm just talking about impact during
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  the game, because that's where we are, right. We can talk about
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  how hot it is, we know how dope the lyrics are, but it's
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  about the climate, right. The climate didn't call for an album like this,
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  similar to Camp Blow. Camp Blow released their debut, and I believe,
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  like ninety six, if you go back and look at ninety six and
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  not just the albums that came out, but just everything that was happening in
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  the whole East Coast, West Coast thing POC. You know, a lot
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  of the focus on hip hop was lyricism, dope beats and rap beefs boss.
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  But you know what I mean, Like that was kind of like the
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  climate, and there were a ton of classic albums, Like some of your
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  favorite arts had their best albums ever, from Red Man to the Fujis to
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  Tupac. Right his Camp Blow release, you know, relatively unknown group and
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  their debut, releasing something that sounds like nothing else that sound right. It's
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  a lot of soul and black spoiltation references and that's the entire vibe, and
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  it's a lot of wordplay, but it's wordplay that kind of reminds you of
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  the early nineties as opposed to nine six. I feel like that's what Run
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  the Jews debut album did at the time it released in twenty thirteen. It
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  it wasn't jay Z, it wasn't Kendrick Lamar or Drake or anybody else that
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  was happening, but it was familiar. Right, Yo, it's killer Mike,
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  Yo, it's LP what they're group? Well, what is that gonna
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  sound like? And what you when you think about both artists and what their
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  typical sound is, Run the Jews did not match that. I think it
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  was better in a lot of ways because it fits an aesthetic of the times
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  where it's probably more prevalent now, right, especially when you look at like
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  AI generated images and videos and the way people dress in the type of sounds
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  they like. Right, I just want to rock or we just want to
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  rock. Whatever the name of that little little oozy vert song is. But
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  listen to how that sounds, right, doesn't really come across as hip hop,
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  but it is it is, you know what I'm saying. And I
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  kind of feel like it's the same with Run the Jewels Right on the surface,
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  if you don't know the group, you never heard any of their music,
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  Maybe you never heard of them, or maybe you heard of them but
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  never heard the music. If I tell you it's dope hip hop, chances
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  are, depending on who you are, you're probably going to listen for boom
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  back type beats. What you don't expect is this like music that sounds like
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  a scene from a movie like Blade or and it was in the video game,
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  but a video game like Cyberpunk? Right, what is it twenty seventies?
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  Mean, whatever it's called. You know, something so futuristic sounding,
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  but it is a branch from hip hop's lineage that it doesn't seem like it's
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  right, but it is. And I'm saying all this to say that I
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  think what Killer Mike and LP had done had basically made their mark in the
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  hip hop game in a major way that maybe some can't appreciate today, But
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  on the tenth anniversary of the release of this album, I think it's extremely
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  important to pay attention to what they've done right, because they've extended hip hop's
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  life in a lot of ways, not single handedly, but in a lot
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  of ways. They've kept hip hop going with a fresh sound which probably introduced
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  new fans to the genre of music as a whole. That's kind of what
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  we want as hip hop heads. We don't want hip hop to remain the
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  same so much that it doesn't grow and it doesn't reach new fans. And
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  a lot of ways, Run the Jewels and their sound and their combination of
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  skill and history and passions for this hip hop game has basically helped hip hop
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  in a lot of ways reach new audiences. And again, it hasn't turned
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  hip hop into that that's their sound, but in a lot of ways,
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  trust me, it has influenced the sounds of hip hop that you like.
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  So ten years of Run the Jewels the debut album, what did you think
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  when you first heard their self titled album, Run the Jewels that you think
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  now it's not the killer mic and LP I want to hear that you love
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  it? Are you to the Run the Jews party? Did you maybe you
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  like Run the Jews four that made you go back and listen to the other
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  ones? Leave your comments in a common section below let me know what your
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  thoughts are. Fifty years of hip Hop. Subscribe to my podcast not only
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  here on YouTube, but also an audio form on your favorite podcasts and platforms,
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  and just know if you enjoy this content, press the light button if
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  you want to hear more, subscribe, or more importantly, share it with
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  people you know enjoy this kind of content. Until next time, y'all,
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  I'm not a critical, I'm a fan. Peace,