Run the Jewels has a canned cocktail. Let that sink in. Thankfully, this is no ordinary celebrity booze.
“There’s no reason anyone should give a shit that Run the Jewels made a drink unless it’s really fucking good,” says El-P, one-half of the Grammy-winning hip-hop duo. And it is really f—ing good! Juice Runners follows up on RTJ’s frequent collaborations with craft brewers, with this latest venture being the first drink the group can call its own. Their first release (Paloma REMIX) is crafted from a traditionally distilled mezcal from El Tinieblo Ranch and organic juices. It’s sessionable, bright, modestly boozy (5.9% ABV) and lacks the artificial/tinny flavors that weigh down most ready-to-drink (RTD) canned cocktails.
A week after they opened for Wu-Tang Clan in New York at Madison Square Garden, I met up with El-P and Killer Mike at the annual Tales of the Cocktail drinks conference in New Orleans, where the duo presented and performed at several events, including an awards ceremony, a Jack Daniel’s party and their own Juice Runners event. We spoke for about an hour at the Four Seasons, where the group was staying and not at all indicative of any sort of brand sellout (“I wanted to make sure every time I had a coffee, it was $12,” El-P drolly notes).
Below, a few select quotes and stories from the extremely engaging duo. While RTJ couldn’t get into too many details, Juice Runners will be expanding this year, starting with Sea Legs, a pineapple rum punch made with Two James Distillery’s Doctor Bird rum; a collector’s rum crafted in partnership with top St. Lucian distillers and spirits expert Fred Minnick; and a zero-proof cocktail designed for functional sipping.
How Beer Led to an RTJ Canned Cocktail
El-P: The beer stuff was always a collaboration with other people. I don’t think either of us is necessarily a big beer drinker — we like beer, but those collaborations happened by accident. We saw the Goose Island guys and we connected with them. They’re like art guys, they’re super into their craft and it’s a community. That’s sort of our vibe.
The Origins of Juice Runners
El-P: It started as a joke, like it was going to be Rum the Jewels, but as we traveled, we saw all these places already making ‘Rum the Jewels’ cocktails. But that reinforced that this could be fun. And I got obsessed with mezcal when my wife introduced it to me. Her grandmother lived three hours outside of Mexico City. This was when no good mezcal was making it to America, just like shitty bottles with the worm in them.
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El-P: Mezcal is the worst spirit for margins. It’s also the hardest thing to source. But the truth is, we’re not a big fucking liquor company. We just wanted to make a cool thing and see if people liked it. Thankfully, we have people dealing with the business side. Mike and I like to smoke weed and rap, but we are directly involved with formulating the taste. This is not a brand sponsorship, it’s a thing we’re creating like an album.
How They Came Up With a Flavor
El-P: I love watching Mike test the flavors because he’s such an easy drunk. But we’re opposites. He can smoke a pound of weed and I’ll have half a joint and be like, I gotta go. But this is the only canned drink I’ve ever liked. I always thought they tasted terrible.
Killer Mike: I’m not a big alcohol drinker, it hits kind of harsh. But there are a few types of alcohol I’m really liking right now. I’ve developed a taste for whiskeys and Scotches. There’s also an illegal killer peach moonshine that comes out of North Carolina and West Virginia. I have this friend, both of our grandfathers essentially brewed ‘shine, and it’s so good, it’s so smooth. But Juice Runners, I’m really proud of it. As [somewhat of] a non-drinker, I’m usually at a party trying to figure out what looks like a drink. But these, I pour over ice, it just gives me joy. It’s the same joy I get from going to Europe and drinking their Fanta. Their Fanta tastes like real fruit, bright and citrusy and pops in your mouth.
On Not Doing a THC/Edibles Product
El-P: I’ve been afraid of edibles ever since the first time I did any. I can’t control them very well.
Killer Mike: My wife and I went to the doctor on the same day when you used to have to get a medical card in California. The doctor was a real stereotypical white guy, looked like Henry Winkler. I have hypertension, and the doctor says I can smoke. I said, “What about [edibles]?” And he says no. My wife says the doctor told her she could have all the edibles she wanted. Why not me? She looks at me and says, “You’re fat.”
Why RTJ Is Not Partnering With a Bigger Brand
El-P: The only thing we ever knew how to do was just what we liked. Because of that, it meant a different type of career. Once you accept that what you’re not going for is mass appeal, it opens up another world for you. We’re not farming it out. We want our fingerprints on all of it. There are a lot of people who kind of pick up sponsorship or brand money. They lend their name to things or whatever. We’ve never done that. We’ve spent the last two years putting all of our merch money into everything that we make, and that money is something that we need. You’re talking to guys who give away their records for free. Merch is one of the few revenue streams that indie artists like us have to be able to survive. That’s what we had to work with. And so it’s the commitment to setting this thing off. It’s an art project for us.
Reflecting on the 10th anniversary of Meow the Jewels, When the First RTJ Album Was Remade With Cat Noises
El-P: That was a tragic mistake. It was a joke I made while stoned. We were writing out packages you could pre-order — vinyl, sticker, whatever. I just started writing stupider and stupider ones, like $100,000 mystery packages, and another one was to remake the album with cat noises. And I priced it too low. Someone started a Kickstarter — it went too far, but I talked to the kid and said if we did it for charity, then we have to do it. We gave the money to the families of Michael Brown and Eric Garner.
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