Kill Your Masters

"In Kill Your Masters Dutch music journalist Jaap van der Doelen tells the story of two rappers in the twilight of their careers who suddenly find themselves ascending to the heights of pop culture icons while fighting for change in a world about to fall prey to fascism. "It shouldn't have happened," van der Doelen writes. "Hiphop has long been considered a young man's game...and yet two rappers well into their forties have managed to find cross-generational success." This book starts with the stories of how Killer Mike and El-p got their starts as solo artists (in Atlanta and Brooklyn, respectively) and culminates with "Holy Calamavote" in October 2020-a live televised event where Run the Jewels performed their fourth album in its entirety in an effort to motivate as many people as possible to register to vote in the 2020 presidential elections. Van der Doelen relies on multiple interviews he has conducted with RTJ along with conversations Mike and Jamie have had with other music journalists over the years"--