Run The Jewels to bring their Trump-baiting hip hop to Field Day
A couple of gems: Field Day’s newest act, Run The Jewels. Photograph: Tim Saccenti
Run The Jewels are the latest artists to be announced for Victoria Park’s Field Day festival, fresh from their Donald Trump-baiting pre-inauguration show in Washington D.C. last week.
.@runjewels – Field Day – Victoria Park London – Saturday 3 Junehttps://t.co/j4ypjJtLUJ pic.twitter.com/ev0e914n3w
— Field Day (@fielddaylondon) January 23, 2017
The American duo are well known for their political activism – in particular Killer Mike, who became a prominent supporter of Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign following their six-part video series of conversations. (The senator from Vermont confessed in a 2016 GQ piece that “the name got me a little bit nervous. But Killer Mike has never killed anybody. It’s just, he’s a killer rapper.”)
Run The Jewels could be described as a supergroup within the hip-hop world: Killer Mike already had five studio albums out, as well as guest spots on Outkast’s seminal Stankonia and Speakerboxxx/The Love Below albums, when he banded together with twenty-year rap veteran El-P in 2013.
Their latest album Run the Jewels 3 was released last Christmas Eve and features recent single 2100, which asks “How long before the hate that we hold / Lead us to another Holocaust?”
For those who crave something less hard-hitting, new choices from this final announcement include the mellow piano-pop of Rae Morris and a welcome return to performance from brooding Glaswegian indie lifers, Arab Strap. Thee Oh Sees, Lady Leshurr and BEAK> (who count Portishead’s Geoff Barrow among their ranks) also join the bill.
Acts already announced include headliner Aphex Twin (who will play new indoor stage arena ‘The Barn’, a gigantic hanger-like construction), up-and-coming Irish singer-songwriter Áine Cahill, and Syrian folk hero Omar Souleyman. The full list of performers can be found on the Field Day website.
This story was updated at 11am on Tuesday 24 January, to add newly announced names for the festival.