Run The Jewels

Run The Jewels

It seems just about everyone was over at Kendrick, and the crowd filtering zombie-like out of the What Stage’s main fields took a while. By the time I made it back over to This Tent for Run The Jewels, they were in the middle of their first song already and it sounded like I was walking towards a warzone. It doesn’t seem to matter how many times you see these guys: a Run The Jewels set is a crazy steamroller of a thing. Playing in front of a screen hosting a series of violently trippy imagery, El-P and Killer Mike did all the same stuff they always do — the same jokes and intros for songs, more or less the same running order. And yet somehow the degree to which this stuff can get you amped up, even when you know exactly what’s coming, is stunning. (Or maybe knowing what to expect next somehow intensifies the experience.) “We’re the best motherfucking rap group in the world!” Killer Mike yelled after typical set-ender “A Christmas Fucking Miracle,” and before they were coaxed back for an encore after thunderous chants of “RTJ!” It occurred to me at Bonnaroo that weed, of all things, is the drug RTJ is extremely passionate about, the drug they always talk about smoking before gigs, etc. God help us if they ever move onto something harder.