Core Members
Mike is also known as a social and political activist, focusing on subjects including social inequality, police brutality, and systemic racism. In addition to addressing themes of racism and police brutality in his music, he has also delivered several lectures at colleges and universities, written about social justice topics for publications such as Billboard, and been the subject of interviews regarding police misconduct and race relations.
El-P's rapping style is characterized by dense, aggressive, and verbose attacks which include heavy use of metaphors, sci-fi fantasy themes, pop culture references, and associative wordplay. His lyrics often feature themes found in the works of sci-fi author Philip K. Dick, such as paranoia and questions about the nature of reality. Having released four solo studio albums between 2002 and 2012 that were critically acclaimed by underground audiences, El-P began experiencing mainstream success in 2013 when he and rapper Killer Mike formed the hip hop duo Run the Jewels. They have released four studio albums: Run the Jewels (2013), Run the Jewels 2 (2014), Run the Jewels 3 (2016), and RTJ4 (2020).
Touring Members
Trackstar the DJ has been fortunate to travel the world playing music he loves, working and performing with many of the greatest artists in hip hop since his start behind the turntables on college radio in St Louis in 1999. In 2011, Trackstar became the official tour DJ for Killer Mike first as a solo act, and now for the supergroup with El-P, Run the Jewels, which has never done a show with any other DJ. They have performed at hundreds of venues and dozens festivals all over the world, including Madison Square Garden, Coachella, and Glastonbury. He and RTJ (Trackstar is considered the unofficial third member of the group).