Killer Mike and El-P are gearing up to release the followup to last year's standout Run The Jewels project. Run The Jewels 2 is one of the most anticipated albums of 2014 as fans look for the duo to return with more of their fun brand of off-kilter hip-hop. News about the album has been scarce to this point, however, with the only real clues on what it will sound like coming from El-P's Instagram account; back in April, Rage Against The Machine frontman, Zack de la Rocha, and Blink 182 drummer, Travis Barker, were spotted in a Run The Jewels 2 studio session. Sporadically, El-P has posted snippets of new songs and announced two weeks ago that the album is fully mixed. The first single will be released as part of the Adult Swim Singles Series.

While on their new tour, Mike and El-P spoke to XXL on their upcoming album Run The Jewels 2, what fans can expect from the project and their favorite shows on Adult Swim. —Emmanuel C.M.

XXL: Tell me about Run The Jewels 2.

El-P: We just mastered it last night. It's 100 percent finished.

Killer Mike: Shit is a wrapped like burritos, like a gyro.

Who is on the album? What can y’all share?

El-P: Well we can share what’s already out now. We got Zack De La Rocha from Rage Against The Machine. My boy Travis Barker is on the album as well. Me and Mike are on the album, we’re on every song. [Laughs] It’s a dope record. The fact of the matter is it’s the El-P and Mike show. The record really doesn’t have a lot of features on it. There are some friends that pop up here and there but it’s not a big feature record.

KM: We didn’t plot to go find Zack De La Rocha and Travis Barker. We were at the studio smoking a joint and El and Zack saw each other grabbing a sandwich. Him and El was there and I was with Travis smoking weed. This record is very organic. One thing, when we made Run The Jewels, we never wanted to get—you can’t make a better collab record than DJ Khaled, so if you ain’t Khaled don’t go fucking around with all the features, just do what you do to the best of your ability. And that’s what Run The Jewels is. When you buy a Run The Jewels album, you’re buying a Run The Jewels album.

El-P: We'll have some friends pop up. We have a couple of things on the album that are great collaborations. For us, we’re literally collaborating with each other. It’s like doing a collab on every song. We kind of just love that aspect of it. Whatever natural happens in the studio is what we let happen for the album.

Run The Jewels 2 was announced pretty quickly.

El-P: We went on tour and had a great tour and then Run The Jewels was moving overseas. We just decided pretty quickly that once we get off the road, let's just go in again. We just really felt the momentum and really were having a good time doing it. When you get to run around the world, talk about shooting poodles with your best friend and people actually like it and pay me for it and have a good time at your shows, you want to have that feeling again.

What will people feel when they hear Run The Jewels 2?

El-P: They are going to jump out the window. They are going to run through the wall like the Juggernaut. It’s a relentless record and it's got some depth to it that we didn’t touch on in the same way in the last album. Hopefully people just enjoy it and have an experience with it. We feel really lucky for having people paying attention. We’re trying to make something beautiful for people and something that gets us excited about music. Hopefully people feel the same way. You can only hope for that, hope for the best and that people feel connected to what you are doing. I think people are going to be amped off this music in a sense it’s the type of music that amps you up. There’s some moments of beauty on here that I’m really excited about. Me and Mike came together did some shit on here that we haven’t done before.

I love that y’all are fans of Adult Swim and work on cool projects with them. What’s some of your favorite shows on the network?

KM: I’m going to be watching Black Jesus, I’ll tell you that.

El-P: Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Sealab 2021, Squidbillies.

KM: Robot Chicken is good as fuck.

El-P: I even like Space Ghost. The Venture Bros are my jam.

KM: Frisky Dingo is ill.

El-P: Mike and I are both very good friends with Adult Swim’s Jason DeMarco who does all that stuff with them. We met each other through them and they have been big supporters of both of us and we’ve been working with them and doing music over the years. That’s kind of the relationship there. We [Run The Jewels] were both fans of the programming and they were fans of the music. That’s kind of where it all started.

Previously: Community Outreach Is Important To Run The Jewels

Run The Jewels Has An Issue With Apple’s New Ad

Killer Mike And El-P Announce ‘Run The Jewels’ Tour Dates

Future, Run the Jewels And More Are Featured On Adult Swim’s 2014 Singles Program