Good Or Shit: Run The Thrones

I have been really off hip hop lately. With a few small exceptions over the past 12 months, I just really have not been bothered keeping up with who is the latest and the greatest in groundbreaking, boundary pushing dope-ness. I think it's a mixture of feeling saturated by this genre and its mass popularity – I recently danced all night to the Eurythmics' greatest hits and never felt so free – as well as a lack of interest in the I'm-the-fucking-king super ego that seems to be so bloody prominent.

Everyone is always banging on about Kanye. He gets as much attention as Miley Cyrus. Only difference is, while people slag him off, it always seems to come with the following disclaimers – you can't deny he's a great artist. The work speaks for itself. It stands alone. You gotta' separate the douche from the art. And my favourite little apologetic tidbit – at least he's providing us with a talking point. What the hell is that shit? Is there really no one else making music worth talking about?

I'm gonna' come right out and say it – Kanye West does nothing for me. He never has. I don't dislike him, I just don't care about him. I don't have the urge to even work out whether I possibly can separate the man from art because, the man is such a megalomaniac I'm personally, on a psychological level, repelled.

I watched the clip for Bound 2 because my housemate and his friend were standing over a laptop lamenting how he'd destroyed such a great track with such a shocking video (but, you know, you can't deny he's a great artist). All I saw was, two people on a motorcycle who reside in a world so completely removed from my own, simulating the act of making love to each other but looking more like they were making love to their magnificent selves. I've seen porn stars with more desire for each other. Meh.

I sat through 40 minutes of his Breakfast Club interview because everyone raved about what a lunatic he is. All I saw was an angry little man, yapping about the fact that Nike won't give him, not just what he wants, but what he thinks he deserves. That Louis Vuitton won't recognise his God-like influence and power. When he started banging on about how we are slaves to corporations I thought – hmm this guy's not a total fool – but then he proceeded to express (several times) that his answer to this great socio-political debacle, is to get as wealthy as they are so he can be just as powerful and influential. Kanye West and Jay Z – The Pinky and the Brain.

That wasn't totally fair. At least Jay Z seems to care about healthcare for the people. Kanye West, on the other hand, claimed he and Kim K don't have enough money to consider themselves financially secure. Hahahahahahaha. But you can't deny he's a great artist. Right?

I wondered if there were any other disgruntled writers out there who are as bored to tears by the monopoly of acclaim and focus on one area of egocentric fame and money-loving hip hop. I found one. Edinburgh magazine The Skinny ran an opinion piece on the topic where the writer questioned – “Why have all the artists I admire, almost without exception, become hollow, money-obsessed, misogynistic shills fixated on celebrity culture?” And after sitting back and chuckling while he dragged rappers through the gutter, muddying their $120 Kanye West designed white tees, he mentioned that El-P and Killer Mike had teamed up to become Run The Jewels and released a great album.

In my year of being off hip hop, I'd almost missed out on some great music made by artists who still live in the real world and care about stuff the rest of us little people have to grapple with. And when I listen to Run The Jewels, I feel like a captured brumby being let out of a stall. Unbridled, untamed, a little dangerous, and a tad playful. That's how the beats sound, that's what the lyrics are.

Ain't no Messiah bullshit from El-P.

The last time I saw El-P perform was about six years ago at the Gaelic where, every time he got to the front of the stage, some very trashed friends of mine would draw on his shoes. He was so into what he was doing he didn't even notice, or perhaps didn't care. Kanye probably would have cried and raved that it was no way to treat the Messiah.

El-P is also the first person I ever interviewed, when I was just a little admin girl working in the office of an independent dance music magazine. The editor knew I had dreams of becoming a writer, knew I liked El-P, and offered me the boss' office to conduct the interview in. I had liquid bowels all morning. It was a few months after my best friend had died and also after Camu Tao had died. I remember desperately wanting to discuss grief, but all I could muster was an 'I'm sorry about your friend'. He thanked me in a small flat voice. I might have annoyed him, but I liked to imagine that there was an unspoken understanding, that we had connected on some level. That we understood each other's madness.

So I got tickets to the London Run The Jewels show and it was, well, like dancing to the Eurythmics at 3am – exhilarating.

These two talented MCs work so well together, perform with so much energy, and playfulness. “We're the greatest rappers out there right now,” Killer Mike stated before they performed 36'' Chain. “That's why,” El-P finished, in a cheeky tone, “we're wearing these invisible 36 inch chains”. Haha, take that money-obsessed rappers.

Every track they did from the album was great. They encored with some of their solo stuff and it was a bonus. But I think my highlight was A Christmas Fucking Miracle. Imbuing an already powerful track with even more meaning and emotion – “This song is for anyone who was ever told they couldn't be what they wanted to be” Killer Mike cried. “It's also for anyone who has lost someone they love,” El-P finished.

And there was that connection again.

I read an article recently where the journalist claimed that one of the reasons why Run The Jewels would never reach levels of fame akin to say, Kanye, is because “for a woman, basically any non-sexual impression is considered non grata by the entertainment industries”. Blatant sexism aside – non-sexual impression? I would love to have sex with El-P. Furious sex. And then lie around naked talking emotions and politics.

So I'm right back into hip hop now. I'm listening to Killer Mike's R.A.P Music and El-P's Cancer For Cure. And I really want to thank Kanye West. He drove me back to hip hop.

It just wasn't his.