Album review: Run the Jewels, Run the Jewels 3

A late career alliance between two rappers deemed over the hill, Run the Jewels has blossomed into the most fascinating hip-hop collaboration of the age. El-P and Killer Mike were in their mid-30s – advanced old age in rap years – when they first crossed one another’s path six years ago. But what started as a side-project between artists on the margins of their genre quickly turned into an irresistible meeting of minds, with the duo bringing their “alternative” rhymes firmly into the mainstream with a brace of critically lauded albums.

Moreover, they’ve done so with a humour which sets them apart in a milieu where, from Kendrick to Kanye, po-facedness is regarded as a badge of authenticity – what other act would follow through on a promise to fans to release a remix record in which the instruments were replaced by sampled cats, as El-P and Killer Mike did with 2015’s Meow The Jewels?