#mr. len

[todayinhiphophistory]

Today in Hip Hop History:

Company Flow released their debut album Funcrusher Plus July 22, 1997

[sinceileftyoublog]

Run The Jewels Live Show Review: 9/28, The Salt Shed, Chicago

Run The Jewels (El-P & Killer Mike)

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Over the past several years, Run The Jewels albums have seemed primed for the time they came out. Run The Jewels 3 was released digitally in between the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election and Donald Trump's subsequent inauguration, El-P and Killer Mike's penchant for grand political statements and even cheeky conspiracy theories nestled alongside their statements of self-triumph. RTJ4 was released in 2020, two days earlier than planned in response to the murder of George Floyd and subsequent protests of police brutality and institutional racism all over the world. Songs like "Just", featuring the unforgettable line, "Look at all these slavemasters posin' on yo' dollar," were both timely and ever-relevant. Reflecting, though, it's always been Run The Jewels 2 that's the duo's crowning achievement, where it felt like the potential of the collaboration reached its full potential. In 2012, El-P lent his dystopian production to Mike's southern fried R.A.P. Music, Mike a verse to Cancer 4 Cure standout "Tougher Colder Killer". 2013 saw the two realize the group for the first time with a self-titled album, which at the time was a welcome surprise and perhaps a victory lap. Turns out, it was just a warm-up.

Run The Jewels (Killer Mike & El-P)

That is, Run the Jewels 2 showcased everything you love about hip hop: MCs with distinct, but complementary flows and styles, unique production, and social awareness combined with a firecracker sense of humor, the potential to burn it all down, and unmistakably horny braggadocio. It was my obvious choice when deciding which of four nights to see RTJ perform an album in full, also knowing they'd cherry pick highlights from their back catalog in a second set. On stage at The Salt Shed last Thursday, Mike and El sounded as clear as ever without losing their bruising momentum, shouting words to a crowd who replied back every single one. (The two joked that playing this album in full was a bad idea, considering the amount of mushrooms they consumed when making it, fearing they wouldn't be able to remember their lines.) Trackstar the DJ rattled the stereo-busting bass of "Oh My Darling Don't Cry" and "Close Your Eyes (And Count To Fuck)" as the crowd jumped up and down and moshed. Mike likened himself to William "Refrigerator" Perry during "Blockbuster Night Part 1", successfully pandering to those members of the crowd who were fans of the Chicago Bears, aka didn't travel from all over the Midwest to see the show.

Killer Mike

Though the first four RTJ2 songs are all-timers, it was the back half that shone brightest. Before RTJ performed nihilist anthem "Lie, Cheat, Steal", El-P remarked, based on the younger age of the crowd, that they'd have "a front row seat to the apocalypse," which put into perspective for a lot of us why we gravitated towards their magnum opus in the first place. When it came out 9 years ago, it foreshadowed the shit that would truly hit the fan a couple years later, providing a worthwhile soundtrack to said gradually looming apocalypse, all without being self-serious. The magic of the record is that a song like "Early", which Mike introduced by dedicating it to anybody who has been terrorized by the police and declaring that "the state should fear the people" as opposed to the other way around, is immediately followed by, in the duo's words, "two of the most ignorant songs we've ever written." By "ignorant," they really meant sexually charged tunes that provide necessary moments of levity. Specifically, when performing "Love Again (Akinyele Back)", the duo let the raunchy verse from the late, great Gangsta Boo, play uninterrupted, cementing her as the most important spirit in the room at that moment.

Mr. Len

It's no secret that Run the Jewels in general have a diverse fanbase. Folks I spoke with in the crowd ranged from hardcore kids to hip-hop heads, as expected from the type of group that has Pharrell Williams rub elbows with Zach De La Rocha. For the old school fans, an unexpected gift was in store: an opening DJ set from Mr. Len of Company Flow, the hip hop trio where El-P cut his teeth before going solo. (According to El, Bigg Jus was also in the house, though he never came out on stage.) Mr. Len treated us to tracks from Company Flow, El-P produced tunes from Cannibal Ox, and classics from Goodie Mob, Gang Starr, and A Tribe Called Quest. Though it was a callback to a bygone era, I couldn't help but think how Run the Jewels--along with the Backwoodz Studioz and Griselda crew--are this generation's possible forebears to whatever comes next, whether that's 20 years of RTJ or something else.

[garneneva]

He’s so silly- uh. I mean logical.

[clonehighdoublehelix]

[robiberon]

guess who just reawatched sweeney todd

[shatteredlenstx]

Mr. Mustache (aka Mason Marchment)

[kanagraphic]

nihil - san 2dmv transparents / renders ( 1 / 2 )

self indulgent ! ! haven’t seen anybody else do these , and i really like the artstyle of the 2dmv so i decided to make some renders ! ! unrelated idk whether to call it mr or ms nihil . . . i know it’s officially “ mr “ but it makes more sense for the commission to be ms . nihil instead of mr . nihil because its about mafuyu BUT WHATEVER IM RANTING SORRY

[thatlenguy]

i'm not bleeding out YOU'RE bleeding out

(id in alt, reblogs appreciated)

[warhead]

[starcanwreckedpulp-joke-ships]

ROUND 1

RUTH FLEMING × LEN ( SEGA VOCALOID )

VS

ROMAN MURRAY × MR. YOUNG (is that rolex clocked...)

[the-lion-guard-88]

Thought this would be cool to share: My Mr. Puzzles keychain was in the sun and had this cool little lens flare in the shape of his head :)

[thevaelguard]

Ignoring strange items, Sebastian's room in Knight Errant feels so. depressing, even ignoring he might be spending the royal coffers on other things than himself.

This is the room of the Prince of Starkhaven? What is said to be the richest, most powerful city-state in the Free Marches? I can't see his father or the Princes before him sleeping in such a tiny room, it's around the same size of the front area of Gamlen's home!

It makes me wonder if this was Sebastian's room before he was forcibly shipped off to Kirkwall, seen so unneeded and worthless by his family he got what could have been once a guest room and not a proper room for family members.

And the kicker is he still chooses to sleep there, in the Undesirable room, barely decorating it that it doesn't feel like a prince lives there. The only unique item is a tapestry of Maferath mercy killing Andraste on the pyre, possibly showing that the one thing he still finds comfort in is Andrastianism, in the Chantry, in the one place he was made to feel wanted.

Mr. Sebastian Vael are you doing well...

[nerds-yearbook]

The first issue of Justice League International Special was published with a cover date of February 1990. This issue was created by the regular team that was making Mr Miracle at the time and basically is a story between Mr Miracle (vol 2) 12 and 13. ("The Show Must Go On... and on... and on... and on", Justice League International 1, DC Comic Event)

[kaliesuriens]

Man I swear If god give me the hability to draw and to animate properly, and money to hire voice actors, I would make trailers for the rogues, like the mercs from Team Fortress 2.

[artely-01]

VocaMatsu-san 2024 version

[sidsinning]

Schadenfreude wip 😏