Rjd2 — Dead Ringer

Over the last few months, DefJux has been continually one of the best providers in quality hiphop, -just think Cannibal Ox, Aesop Rock, Mr Lif or El-P (label CEO). And now, it’s time to make room for the NY-based label latest offering, Dead Ringer, first full-length by Columbus, Ohio 27 years old producer Rjd2. It was with huge excitement that I put this CD for the first time in my hifi and, oh boys, was I disappointed....

Not that this album is bad, but, after the first listen, you can’t get away from the unpleasant feeling that you’ve heard it all before from artists such as DJ Shadow or Play-era Moby. You’ve got the old blues or soul vocal samples reminiscent of the NY bald vegan and the song structures, the dramatic and melancholic “cinematic” feelings usually promoted by Josh Davis’ CD’s. And of course you have the John Barry or Ennio Morricone moments, ever present on such so-called “abstract” hiphop records.

However, it must be said that a few songs have a very original feeling and that Rjd2 spices everything up with samples of a brass section and acoustic guitars which manage to create a really unique and catchy atmosphere. Songs like The Hhorror, Ghost-writer, Cut Out To Fl., Two More Dead and the hidden-track at the end of the CD are simply so addictive that it’s actually worth buying the album for those tracks alone. Rjd2 also brought MC's from his other projects on board: Copywrite (from Mhz) on June, Jakki da Motamouth (Mhz too) on Fuck hiphop and Blueprint (from Soul Position) on Final Frontier, one of the best tracks of the album. Another quality of Dead Ringer is that the more you listen to it, the more you like it. I went from “boring” to “I like it actually” and as I’m now typing these words whilst listening to it, I’m thinking “hmm, very nice indeed” so the marks I give today might be very different if you ask me in a few months.

All in all, this is quite an enjoyable CD, yet not as good as one could have expected from a DefJux release. If you’re a DJ Shadow fan, you’ll love this. If you’re looking for new things, well, maybe this is not for you. However, the original bits here should encourage you to check Rjd2 next albums, as great things might be on the way if he manages to distance himself from his too obvious influences.