Brinley Hineman // Contributing writer
Those who missed Run the Jewel’s sold-out performance at Marathon Music Works on Monday missed an evening full of hardcore hip-hop that had the audience rocking to the beat.
Starting off the night were opening acts Fashawn, Cuz Lightyear and Boots. All three artists delivered dance-worthy hits and pumped up the crowd for the most anticipated act: Run the Jewels.
The duo’s members Michael “Killer Mike” Render and Jaime “El-P” Meline stormed the stage to Queen’s “We Are the Champions” and jammed out together, inviting the crowd to join them in their dance fest. Their energy was contagious and it wasn’t long before the crowd went wild.
They dove into their self-titled opening song “Run the Jewels” after announcing their plan to “burn the house down” which was greeted with an roar of approval from the crowd.
Throughout their performance of line upon line of clever lyrics, Killer Mike and El-P kept exchanging comical remarks with one another. The duo was well received by the audience, especially when El-P called fans to take up their position in the “Jewel Runner family.”
Those in the self-called Jewel Runner family are made up of die-hard fans who have followed the group since their debut album in 2013. In just two short years, the group went from being two respected independent artists rappers to household names in the underground and alternative hip-hop scene.
The pair took a moment to thank their Nashville fans for their support, reminiscing on their 2013 performance in Nashville.
“Our last show in Nashville is what made us a group,” recalled Killer Mike, paying special homage to what the two referred to as their “favorite city.”
The dynamic duo featured songs from both of their albums, Run the Jewels and Run the Jewels 2, mixing old hits with newer tracks. A crowd favorite was “Lie, Cheat, Steal,” a mantra dedicated to creatively discussing political corruptness.
While the show might be over, Run the Jewels’ career is not. Their new album, Meow the Jewels, is available on Soundcloud and Amazon now, and you can catch the pair on tour throughout the country for the rest of the year.
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To contact Lifestyles editor Rhiannon Gilbert email lifestyles@mtsusidelines.com.
I just want to say that I’m really glad to see Run the Jewels featured on MTSU Sidelines. As a long-time fan of all music but above all else hip-hop, it’s great to see this fantastic duo getting the respect they deserve for their stellar, heavy tunes. I’ve been following the hip-hop scene for around eighteen years, some of them great, others terrible, and while some may disagree, I think that Run the Jewels is taking hip-hop to a whole new level, meshing heavy EDM style beats alongside rough verses and mesmerizing flows. I believe that the following they’ve amassed so far is pretty amazing especially because of the hard hitting political style in which they rap; there are many underground artists who have awesome music, but some is just too overtly political, such as Immortal Technique, and frankly political rap has been on the downturn since the likes of Lil Wayne and Drake came on the scene. While some of these more famous artists might be skilled in their own right, all we hear about now is doing drugs, drinking Cîroc, riding on big rims, and smashing, and it’s refreshing to again see some artists who aren’t afraid to toe the line of getting political and actually saying something of substance. We need more Nas’, and Tupacs, and RTJs, and less Futures, and 2 Chainz, and Wayne copycats.