This Valentine’s Day, and made an announcement that shocked the world:  4 has been completed. In a subsequent interview, El dished a few more details about the album’s direction, indicating that the fourth installment will clock in at a reasonable eleven tracks. Billing the project as “the hardest” of the batch, El revealed that he and Mike channeled EPMD’s during the creation process. Now, with a more detailed announcement feeling inevitable, Killer Mike and El Producto have taken a moment to chop it up on and Malcolm Gladwell’s s Broken Record podcast.

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While the conversation is rather casual, more a discussion among friends than an album-centric info dump, it provides an interesting insight into the creative process of two elite emcees. “You have to become okay with the musical output from your past,” explains El, likening the process with therapy. “It’s a part of you. Reconciling with who you were so you can understand who you are now. Being cool with it…A real obsession guy like myself can listen to one of my records and hear a thousand things I wish I had done.” Mike agrees, mentioning that he argued with for an hour about that same topic. “I can’t believe he was unsatisfied with his music,” marvels Mike. “That’s probably why he has a thirty-two year career and no wack albums.” 

Be sure to check out the full conversation below, especially if you’re a fan of the RTJ movement. Seeing as Mike and El have already blessed us with three hard-hitting albums and have yet to fumble the bag, it’s fair to deem them both masters of the craft. Look no further than the latest episode of Broken Record for proof of that very fact.