El-P Cites Ice Cube and Run DMC as Pivotal Influences in Forming Run The Jewels with Killer Mike

August 15, 2025 619 53 4

Editor’s Note: This story was originally published in November 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Back in November 2019, El-P guested on Talib Kweli‘s weekly People’s Party podcast.

In a clip from the episode, the Run The Jewels producer deconstructs his approach to beat-making, proudly carrying the torch for “noisy” East Coast rap composition. With Kweli as his rap historian sounding board, the producer traces the style to Ice Cube’s post-NWA embrace of The Bomb Squad and Rick Ruben’s work with Run DMC, whose everyman aesthetic was pivotal to RTJ’s onstage presentation.

He also credited Cube’s debut album, AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted, as a crucial influence on the formation of Run The Jewels with Killer Mike, a session he admits he was initially reluctant to take on. “One of the things we connected on immediately, just on some rap shit, was when Ice Cube left NWA, went to the East Coast and immediately hooked up with the noisiest, funkiest, most crazy, production squad,” the producer notes.

Since then, EL-P has joined his idol as a Grammy-winner. Thanks to his production assitance on Killer Mike’s solo effort, Michael, El-P took home a Grammy in 2024.

Watch an excerpt from El-P and Talib Kweli’s People’s Party interview below.