Although El-P and Killer Mike rip apart stages these days as the potent duo Run The Jewels, that wasn’t always the case for the producer-rapper during his time in Company Flow in the late ’90s. During RTJ’s opening tour date stop in Philadelphia this week, El shared a comical story of how his old crew got booed off stage while opening for Beastie Boys.
Some fans might remember that Company Flow, consisting of El, Bigg Jus and Mr. Len, were one of the underground’s biggest acts of the 1990s. Fresh off a European tour and seemingly unpublicized breakup, the trio embarked on powering through a set in 1998 at The Electric Factory, the same venue where RTJ played to a sold-out crowd this past Wednesday (Jan. 11).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr3BP9a0pOo
“I was like, ‘Have I been here before?’ And I realized, 19 years ago I had been here before, it was with my old crew Company Flow,” said El-P to a cheering crowd. “Company Flow had just come off of a two-month-long winter tour through wonderful, disturbing winter wonderlands like Germany … To add even more pain to that, Company Flow had broken up the day we left for the tour. So we went on the tour for two months … I was frazzled, I was fucked up, my whole crew was fucked up. Everything that I had been building was falling apart. But we got the call while we were on tour: ‘You guys are opening for the Beastie Boys in Philly when you get back.’”
Despite Company Flow’s top-tier distinction among the “backpacker” set, Beastie Boys had broken into the mainstream by the Hello Nasty days of the late ’90s, so it’s possible fans were more excited to sing along to “Intergalactic” than to watch cuts from Funcrusher Plus. The pressure of being the opening act got real when El noted one person in the crowd booing and asking the crew to let the Beasties take the stage, leading El to verbally confront the man. That ended up being a bad idea when others joined the man and booed Company Flow stage left after just three songs.
Recounting the story 19 years later, a good-natured El blamed himself for the brouhaha.
Check out the video of El-P telling the hilarious tale of getting booed off stage in Philly in the clip above. Run The Jewels’ next stop is tonight (Jan. 14) at Cleveland’s House of Blues.
They realized he sucked ass
Fuck el-p bring back Big L in zombie form!
Philly was a pretty tough crowd back then. I remember Cannibal Ox getting booed at a GZA show.
Gotta start somewhere & pay your dues, people think it’s overnight Tom Hanks cross dressed for bosom buddies, Jaimie Foxx was Wanda both Oscar winners & once members of the 20 million a picture club. Used to be rappers didn’t rap about Bentley’s till they actually got one, now 17 year olds effin models Poppin bottles in the back of maybachs but live in they Nana’s basement
This pig-skinned peckerwood needs to check his white privilege and leave the rap game to the people who created it.
El-Pedo may be a good producer but his rhymes are wack, subject matter corny af. This pig skined culture vulture gay as hell.
You need help
How can anyone who grew up in Brooklyn in the 70s and 80s be considered a hip hop culture vulture gtfoh.
Young M.A and Desiigner represent Brooklyn hip hop better than this liberal cuck.
If you consider Young M.A and Desiigner hip hop than you don’t know what hip hop is.
Can you tell me why you believe him to be a liberal cuck, other than than him being rational enough to realize Trump is a fucking joke?
Company Flow was dope then and hella hella underrated. Beastie Boys were popular among all genres of fans so if you were going to get a white group then, House of Pain would have been a better fit.
Philly, Jersey, and Harlem is known for booing hiphop acts if their show isnt super tight. It is what it is
I guess back then he wasn’t enough of a liberal cuck. Well rest assured in the last couple years he certainly showed his true colors and i deleted all of his music from my music library.
Good, if you delete every “liberal cuck” from your music library you’d only be left with Kid Rock, Ted Nugent and a bunch of other shitty country music. Have fun with that! ??♂️
The Beastie Boys made it into the mainsteam in the late 1990s? I take it you’ve never heard of Licence to Ill.