Run the Jewels’ victory lap doesn’t halt at Reading 2015

“I sometimes feel weird playing in another country,” starts the ever-active El-P of Run the Jewels, always with a one-liner on the end of his tongue. “But then I remember that this place is run by the same war-mongering paedophile motherfuckers,” he declares, followed by the loudest cheer of the night. Joined by Killer Mike, these two thrive on their own unhinged anger, and they’re in the form of their lives.

The past twelve months have felt like a victory lap for Run the Jewels - two rappers, not exactly in their physical prime, enjoying a late race to the top. It’s a celebration, and that’s been riding up against already close-to-the-bone politicised truths becoming even more tough to handle. Events in the States (and on these shores) have made the cuts from ‘Run the Jewels 2’ feel all the more serious.

But this is Reading, and even when ‘Lie, Cheat, Steal’ delivers every grim detail, the returning chant of “everybody doin’ it” makes a life’s work of being angry, frustrated and fucked off feel all the more worth it.