Run the Jewels, backed by the legendary DJ Shadow and a pair of horn players from the show’s house band, lit up The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon stage Tuesday night. Killer Mike and El-P performed a fierce and energetic version of “Nobody Speak,” their collaboration off of DJ Shadow’s upcoming album, The Mountain Will Fall, who is dropping his first release in five years.
The performance was yet another rager by Run the Jewels, not letting fans forget about the forthcoming LP of their own dropping in the near future, which the group teased a snippet of earlier this month. In the meantime, though, “Nobody Speak” is a more than suitable placeholder when it comes to new music.
In an interview with Pitchfork earlier this year, DJ Shadow talked about his decision to enlist Killer Mike and El-P to provide vocals for the track.
“Occasionally, I make a beat that demands a specific vocal treatment and attitude. In the case of ‘Nobody Speak,’ I wasn’t going to settle for anyone other than Run the Jewels; in my mind, it was them or no one… Fortunately, they agreed, and they took the track to a place I could never get to on my own. That’s the definition of a rewarding collaboration.”
As the song played out, Killer Mike dedicated the performance to “all the victims of violence from Chicago to Orlando.” El-P revealed a rainbow heart inside his black jacket as the show faded out to commercial.
