Rjd2 Albums (5)
What The Critics Say
Give Rjd2 credit -- he certainly couldn't have moved from undie rap to indie pop without believing in the music he's making. It's no wonder he felt he had to move from Definitive Jux, the home of Aesop Rock and Murs, to XL, the home of Thom Yorke and Lemon Jelly, to have any hope of being taken seriously. And while there's no hint of hip-hop anywhere here, The Third Hand is a surprisingly natural mix of his beat-heavy productions and kaleidoscopic tastes with reflective songwriting and plaintive vocals. Sample spotters beware, everything on the record was written, produced, and most importantly, performed by Rjd2 in his home studio. So, after the gigantic mind shift required to reflect on a record that needs to be compared to Broadcast rather than Blueprint, it has to be admitted that Rjd2 is onto something here. His vocals are thin but tuneful, and he has a knack for good harmonies. His productions still overwhelm the songs, reflecting the requirements of hip-hop instead of pop, but they're far better than what's found on the majority of indie pop records. Two skills he has mastered in the past, mood and texture, make this record especially good; witness the transitions from the quiet short-form piece "Someday" into the wide-ranging instrumental "The Bad Penny" into the highlight of the record, "Beyond the Beyond." [An instrumental version of the album also appeared in 2007.] ~ John Bush, All Music Guide
'Magnificent City Instrumentals'
Release Date 5/2/2006
Tracks 14
Label Decon
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Instrumental hip-hop can be a tough way to succeed, financially or artistically. The commercial world puts a low price on non-superstar productions and, for independent rap, the specter of DJ Shadow towers over all who come after him. Though it was overhyped, the full debut of Rjd2 in 2002 (Dead Ringer) illustrated there was additional ground left to plow. Unlike the dozens of Shadow imitators, Rjd2 isn't simply a resurrector of unjustly forgotten wax. He's a virtuoso on the sampler who recognizes that what's important isn't the beats, but what you do with them. To that he adds an implicit awareness of how to pace the songs on his albums for maximum effect. (It certainly doesn't hurt that, around that time, late-'70s rock and urban, his favorite genres to mine for samples, were closer to becoming cool than they had ever been before.) None of these traits were forgotten during Rjd2's journey to success, and his second production album refines the approach still further. With only a few exceptions, though, Since We Last Spoke makes the moody Dead Ringer sound like a piece of flag-waving exuberance; instead of the occasional up-tempo track, it's brooding and mellow throughout the record -- very nearly a rap singer/songwriter record. Three tracks in a row ("Exotic Talk," "1976," "Ring Finger") are sludge rock jams with just a few beats cut out and a few extras (like a talkbox or horn section) pasted on. Surely 50 Cent has nothing to worry about, but Rjd2 knows what he's doing and all of these songs have a way of worming inside your head until you can't wait for the next one. You've got to hand it to any producer who's able to succeed despite covering (and contributing the vocals for) one of the more mawkish tunes of Labi Siffre (who's revered by hip-hop artists for creating the classic "My Name Is..." and "Streets Is Watching" riffs, but who also functioned as a gay Al Stewart during the '70s). It's a left turn for one of the most promising producers in alt-rap, but it could lead to a better place down the road. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
His debut LP for Definitive Jux, DJ/producer RJD2's Dead Ringer is a deeply creative and musically poignant hip-hop record for summer 2002. Creating a raging underground listenership from a series of 45s and white labels and being the only non-MC signed to Def Jux, RJD2's talent as a DJ and as producer, to match beats and lay cult/pop gems over dusty soul tracks, is paralleled only by people like DJ Shadow and Z-Trip. However, his ability to record and marry MCs to his primarily instrumental and sample-based style is evidenced in outstanding tracks with Copywrite and Blueprint as well as his legacy with the MHz crew; at the end of day that puts our man from Ohio ahead of his primarily one-dimensional peer group. This set will stand out as monumental for Definitive Jux, who with their first record outside of the New York MC box continues to stride toward really being definitive in their roster and catalog of independent hip-hop. ~ Nic Kincaid, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Before he hit the big (or at least moderately sized) time as a solo artist with the release of his official debut, Dead Ringer, on El-P's Definitive Jux label, RJD2 put together the extremely limited-edition Your Face or Your Kneecaps more or less as a promotional item. Irregardless of its semi-legitimate status, the album managed to get the producer noticed by Rolling Stone magazine, and it is definitely worth tracking down. It is conspicuous as the rawer blueprint for what Dead Ringer would eventually succeed fully at becoming: self-contained instrumental hip-hop of the highest order. Your Face or Your Kneecaps is of a much rougher finish -- it is a self-described "mix CD," after all, and lacks the glossy veneer of a studio product -- but it also has spontaneity and a ragged bedroom soul in spades. The album's main course is "Poorboy Lover Megamix," a virtuoso display of the art of the sampler. The song's 37 snippets (the majority of them cherry-picked out of the 1960s and '70s) mostly run no longer than 30 or 40 seconds apiece, but the whole 39-minute collage comes together like the greatest obscure, free-form funk 'n' jive live jam you've never heard. Both "Rain" and "Find You Out" have the same sort of effect, but on a much smaller scale. While they feel much more rooted in the earth, they are just as haunting as the mystical landscapes of DJ Shadow. And they help make the album more than simply a warm-up from a extraordinary artist. ~ Stanton Swihart, All Music Guide
