[1] El-P was active professionally in music from the early 1990s, first with Company Flow and then as a solo artist and in-demand producer for others.

Music, which was soon followed by Mike's appearance on the track "Tougher Colder Killer" from El-P's 2012 album Cancer 4 Cure.

The success of the tour eventually led to the decision to form Run the Jewels,[3][4] with the duo taking their name from a lyric in the 1990 LL Cool J song "Cheesy Rat Blues".

[5] On June 26, 2013, Run the Jewels released their self-titled debut album on Fool's Gold Records as a free download.

[8] It features guest production from the likes of Prince Paul, Boots, Geoff Barrow, Zola Jesus, The Alchemist, Just Blaze and others.

[16] The single "Lie, Cheat, Steal", released in 2015, was later used as the theme song to the Netflix documentary series Dirty Money.

[20] February 6, 2016, the duo performed three songs ("Talk to Me", "Legend Has It", "A Report to the Shareholders") for NPR's Music Tiny Desk Concert.

We love you.On August 24, 2016, DJ Shadow's single "Nobody Speak" featuring the duo was released, alongside a music video of brawling politicians just before the 2016 election.

[22] The song was produced by the Mass Appeal record label and DJ Shadow, which he calls the standout track on his album The Mountain Will Fall.

In June 2017, the track "Legend Has It" from Run the Jewels 3 was featured in the teaser trailer for Marvel's Black Panther during game four of the 2017 NBA Finals, and was viewed 89 million times in 24 hours.

The effort was directed by Juan Meza-León, and was released prior to Run the Jewels headlining the 2018 Adult Swim Festival on October 7, 2018.

[31] On October 11, 2018, Run the Jewels released a new song titled "Let's Go (The Royal We)", which was featured in that year's superhero film Venom and debuted on Zane Lowe's Apple Music's Beats 1 show.

[41] Around the same time, the video game Spider-Man: Miles Morales was released, which features an instrumental version of "The Ground Below" from RTJ4 in the background during a mission.

[citation needed] The duo composed the opening theme for the direct-to-video Adult Swim film, Aqua Teen Forever: Plantasm, which released on November 8, 2022.

In the video game Borderlands 3, one of playable character FL4K's pets will throw up the duo's "pistol and fist" gesture when interacted with.

In the video game Gears of War 4, a promotional skin bundle featuring Run the Jewels as playable characters was released in early 2017.