El-P

From his beginnings alongside Company Flow in the first half of the 1990s through the formation of Run the Jewels and an extensive series of solo projects, rapper and producer El-P has remained a central force shaping hip-hop’s trajectory. An experimental and forward-thinking style marked his production work from the start, pairing that restless sonic imagination with equally incisive skills on the mic. Across his body of work he has delivered both landmark recordings under his own name and numerous featured turns on other artists’ projects, sustaining the momentum first established by Company Flow’s 1996 debut Funcrusher and extending through Run the Jewels’ commanding 2020 release RTJ4.

Jamie Meline, born in 1975, spent his formative years in Brooklyn and decided early that music would be his full-time pursuit. Following expulsion from high school he entered a music-engineering course at an alternative educational center; by 1992 he had joined forces with longtime associate Mr. Len to launch Company Flow, adopting the alias El Producto to showcase his growing command of beats and rhymes. Throughout the latter half of the 1990s he also lent his talents to Blackalicious, Mos Def, and Dilated Peoples.

After delivering one final album with Harlem’s Cannibal Ox in 2001, the members elected to go their separate ways on amicable terms. El-P subsequently founded the imprint Def Jux, later rebranded Definitive Jux to sidestep legal conflict with Def Jam. While overseeing the label and contributing to a planned solo album from former Rage Against the Machine vocalist Zack de la Rocha, he completed his own debut, Fantastic Damage, which reached listeners in May 2002. Widely hailed as a landmark, it was succeeded the following year by a striking departure, High Water, issued as part of Matthew Shipp’s Blue Series and uniting the producer with Shipp, William Parker, and additional figures from avant-garde jazz circles. Later in 2004 came Collecting the Kid, a compilation of previously unreleased and scarce material. Nearly four years in the making, his next proper solo album, I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead, arrived with appearances from the Mars Volta, Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor, and Cat Power. In 2010 El-P placed Def Jux on hiatus, preserving its catalog while freeing himself to concentrate on new creative work. That focus yielded two full-length projects in 2012: the Killer Mike collaboration R.A.P. Music and Cancer4Cure, released on Fat Possum and featuring Danny Brown, Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire, and Killer Mike. The immediate chemistry between El-P and Killer Mike prompted the pair to form Run the Jewels in 2013. The resulting blend of the two rappers’ kinetic deliveries and El-P’s high-impact production earned both widespread critical praise and broader commercial attention, lifting El-P from long-standing underground recognition to greater mainstream visibility. The duo’s self-titled debut appeared as a free download in June 2013, followed by Run the Jewels 2 the next year; two additional Run the Jewels albums emerged between 2016 and 2020. During the same period El-P moved into film scoring, contributing to the 2015 release Fantastic Four, being shortlisted yet ultimately not selected for 2017’s Blade Runner 2049, and composing the score for the 2020 Al Capone biopic Capone.