What Is El-P’s Net Worth?
El-P is an American hip hop artist, rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur who has a net worth of $3 million. El-P started out as a member of the group Company Flow and has turned into a driving force in the alternative hip hop scene as a producer for many underground rappers. El-P is the co-founder, CEO, and owner of the Definitive Jux record label. He was a member of the hip hop group The Weathermen and the art collective Cardboard City, and he formed the hip hop duo Run the Jewels with Killer Mike in 2013. Company Flow released the EP “Funcrusher” (1995) and the albums “Funcrusher Plus” (1997), and “Little Johnny from the Hospitul: Breaks & Instrumentals Vol. 1” (1999), and Run the Jewels has released the albums “Run the Jewels” (2013), “Run the Jewels 2” (2014), “Run the Jewels 3” (2016), and “RTJ4” (2020). “Run the Jewels 3” reached #1 on the “Billboard” Top Rap Albums and Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts. As a solo artist, El-P has released the albums “Fantastic Damage”(2002), “High Water” (2004), “I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead” (2007), and “Cancer 4 Cure” (2012), and he was a composer on the films “Bomb the System” (2005) and “Capone” (2020). He also directed the 2020 music video “Run the Jewels Feat. Greg Nice & DJ Premier: Ooh La La.”
Early Life
El-P was born Jaime Meline on March 2, 1975, in Brooklyn, New York. He is the son of Henry Meline and Nan Dillon, and his heritage is Irish, Cajun, and Lithuanian. Henry is a jazz pianist who used the stage name “Harry Keyes.” When El-P was 7 years old, his parents split up. His mother later remarried, and El-P wrote the Company Flow song “Last Good Sleep” about hearing his stepfather assault his mother one night. He told “URB Magazine” in 2002, “I didn’t realize my mother was getting her face smashed against a brick wall. And then it finally dawned on me the next day that it happened. For years I didn’t do anything, there was no therapy, so I was stuck with these nightmares. And this underlying, gnawing feeling of guilt that I knew or I could have known or done something to intercept this problem.” After the incident, Nan threw her husband out of their home and reported him to the police. El-P earned his GED after being expelled from two different high schools, then he studied musical engineering at Manhattan’s Center for the Media Arts. After he graduated, El-P briefly attended Hunter College, but he dropped out because so many of the courses weren’t relevant to the career he wanted to pursue.
Career
El-P hired hip hop DJ Mr. Len for his 17th birthday party, and after becoming friends, the two formed the band Company Flow in 1992. They released their debut EP, “Funcrusher,” in 1995, and they followed it with the albums “Funcrusher Plus” (1997) and “Little Johnny from the Hospitul: Breaks & Instrumentals Vol.1” (1999). Due to disagreements between the band and Rawkus Records, they left the label and El-P launched the record label Definitive Jux. The label released critically-acclaimed albums such as “The Cold Vein” by Cannibal Ox, which El-P produced. Company Flow disbanded in 2001, and El-P released his first solo album, “Fantastic Damage,” the following year. The album reached #9 on the “Billboard” Heatseekers Albums chart and #14 on the Independent Albums chart. His 2004 jazz-fusion album “High Water” was a collaboration with the Blue Series Continuum. In 2005, he released the album “I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead,” which reached #6 on the Independent Albums chart. El-P’s 2012 album “Cancer 4 Cure” peaked at #7 on the “Billboard” Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and #15 on the Independent Albums chart.
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In 2013, El-P and rapper Killer Mike formed Run the Jewels. Killer Mike had previously performed on the “Cancer 4 Cure” track “Tougher Colder Killer,” and El-P had produced Killer Mike’s 2012 album “R.A.P. Music.” Run the Jewels released a self-titled album in 2013, and it reached #6 on the Top Tastemaker Albums chart, #21 on the Top Rap Albums chart, #27 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, and #32 on the Independent Albums chart. Next, they released 2014’s “Run the Jewels 2,” which reached #50 on the “Billboard” 200 chart, #6 on the Top Rap Albums chart, and #9 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. The 2016 album “Run the Jewels 3” reached #1 on the Top Rap Albums and Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts and #13 on the “Billboard” 200 chart, and it featured the Gold single “Legend Has It.” In 2020, the duo released the album “RTJ4,” and it reached the top 10 on the “Billboard” 200 chart and Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart as well as the Canadian Albums chart, Irish Albums chart, Scottish Albums chart, and UK Albums chart. They performed on the 2017 Danger Mouse song “Chase Me,” which also featured Big Boi. The song was on the “Baby Driver” soundtrack and earned a Grammy nomination.
Personal Life
In 2010, El-P began a relationship with comedian/musician Emily Panic. The couple married in October 2018. Panic performed on the 2012 Killer Mike album “R.A.P. Music,” which was produced by El-P.
Award and Nominations
In 2018, Run the Jewels earned a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Song for “Chase Me” (shared with Danger Mouse and Big Boi). They have received six UK Music Video Award nominations, winning for Best Urban Video-International and Best Editing in a Video for “Love Again” in 2016. Their other nominations were for Best Urban Video – Budget for “A Christmas F*cking Miracle” (2014) and “Lie, Cheat, Steal” (2015), Best Urban Video-International for “Close Your Eyes (and Count to F*ck)” (2015), and Best Lyric Video for “Early” (2015). Run the Jewels won an “NME” Award for Best International Band in 2016, and out of 11 A2IM Libera Award nominations, they won five: the Marketing Genius Award in 2015 and 2016, Groundbreaking Album of the Year for “Run the Jewels 2” in 2015, Video of the Year for “Close Your Eyes (and Count to F*ck)” in 2016, and Best Rap/Hip-Hop Album for “Run the Jewels 3” (2017).
