Kill Your Masters: Run The Jewels and the World That Made Them

by Jaap van der Doelen

256 pages, Paperback

Published December 1, 2024

Reviews

[Madalene · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like Run the Jewels a little, some or a lot, you'll appreciate this book covering how they each came into their musical style, met and fell into deep friendship, and grew their sound and their political understandings.
It would be great if there was more examination of why Killer Mike seems to have several blind spots in his political growth missing supporting women running for office, but overall there's a lot here about how he learned political organization from his grandmother and speaks to the economic importance of Black Atlanta. And it is clear that his political passion helped move El-P from someone who refused to vote into a similarly motivated musician for turning out the vote.
This book overall covers a lot of material and will spark curiosity to revisit RTJ albums and the now infamous hand sign (who knew there was a tumblr just for finding it in the wild?). A good read.

[J.A. Pipes · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are a fan of Run The Jewels, even a little bit, this book does a great job of telling the origin stories of these two "superheroes." Killer Mike and El-P did not follow the usual path to get to where they are, and that is one of the biggest reasons why they have such wide appeal. The book also covers much of the political backdrop for the group's first four albums, and it is interesting to see how those events influenced their music and in turn how they have influenced some of those political events. Well written, with an extensive endnotes section, it borders on scholarly... except for the curse words. Definitely worth a read.