Run The Jewels recently released their new album, RTJ4, a couple days early. So, for charting purposes, the album’s debut week consisted only of listening data from last Wednesday and Thursday. In spite of that, RTJ4 is already the duo’s highest-charting album ever thanks to its No. 10 debut on the Billboard 200. Meanwhile, El-P is an active presence on Twitter, and after the news of RTJ4‘s chart placement was revealed, El found himself in what ended up being a sort of impromptu question-and-answer session: Last night, he spent a good chunk of time responding to tweets from fans asking questions about RTJ4.
One fan asked about a sample that El-P previously mentioned he was trying to clear so he could use it on the album, and he revealed that he wasn’t able to get permission to use the audio in question, whatever it was: “it wasn’t cleared so it didn’t make the album so you’ll never know.” Somebody else asked if that prevented the track from appearing on the album at all, and El-P revealed that he “remixed the whole song.”
https://twitter.com/therealelp/status/1270249160973959168
https://twitter.com/therealelp/status/1270250094135259136
Speaking of things that didn’t make the album, El noted, “we also have a version of walking in the snow where the last section has about 12 more bars of me and mike going back and forth.” A number of RTJ4 songs went through multiple phases, like “Ju$t” and “Out Of Sight.”
https://twitter.com/therealelp/status/1270257936586158080
https://twitter.com/therealelp/status/1270248069691572227
https://twitter.com/therealelp/status/1270249317803180032
https://twitter.com/therealelp/status/1270252472087597056
Check out some more inside info about RTJ4 from El-P below.
https://twitter.com/therealelp/status/1270273845640024067
https://twitter.com/therealelp/status/1270271781534916608
https://twitter.com/therealelp/status/1270270406147166208
https://twitter.com/therealelp/status/1270252921154920448
https://twitter.com/therealelp/status/1270266478907064321
https://twitter.com/therealelp/status/1270267410889748480
https://twitter.com/therealelp/status/1270268599098368001
