The story of Meow The Jewels — which grew from a cast-off joke on a Kickstarter to a legitimate album made of cat noises — has been one of the most interesting things to come out of 2015. Now, Run The Jewels have put together a short documentary about the album, how it got made and where all that money went.
El-P explained the genesis of the project:
“‘Meow The Jewels’ was a joke. It was just a joke. I was smoking weed at the kitchen table trying to come up with the Mass Appeal pre-order packages for all the vinyl and all that sh*t. And I just was bored and thought it would be funny if we just came up with a bunch of fake ones.”
The video also includes a breakdown of all the money that was spent and donated. A good chunk of it went to the families of Mike Brown and Eric Garner, Jr., as they revealed earlier this month. Killer Mike said that the people coming together around this project helped to dispel “the mythology of team” in America.
“This country a lot of our faults are based on [feeling like] we’re forced to pick a team. When you think about the donations that came in for Run The Jewels, you have to know that at least half to 75 percent are coming from young, white Americans…It dispells the mythology that there are two teams and you have to choose one.”
For more Meow The Jewels, check out our interview with Run The Jewels.
(Via Pitchfork)