Dead Ringer

producers: rjd2

guests: blueprint, jakki, copywrite.
year of release: 2002
website: mhzsite.com
 
I remember buying the Copywrite "Holier Than Thou" 12", listening to it and not being impressed by RJD2. I remember hearing and reading how artists big up RJ. I remember buying the "June" (also included on here) 12" and it being lost in the truckload of other records that I got around that time. And I remember everyone telling me how good it is. I remember buying the "Def Jux Presents II" compilation, and suddenly, I was listening and hearing it myself. And then, I got the "Let The Good Times Roll" white label only promo and I was convinced. Now I was a subscriber to the 'RJD2 is one of the best' school. A doubter was convinced. My ignorance was proven and thrown in front of an angry beast, that swallowed it up quicker than Jemma Jameson swallows, well, you know. And that beast can also be called "The Horror", which is the monstrous opening song on RJD2's long awaited and soon to be celebrated "Dead Ringer" album (that by the way is called that, because at the time of completion, RJ's phone broke).

tracklisting
1. The Horror
2. Salud
3. Smoke & Mirrors
4. Good Times Roll Pt. 2
5. Final Frontier feat. Blueprint
6. Ghostwriter
7. Cut Out To FL

8. F.H.H. feat. Jakki
9. Shot In The Dark
10. Chicken-Bone Circuit
11. The Proxy
12. 2 More Dead
13. Take The Picture Off
14. Silver Fox
15. June feat. Copywrite
16. Work
But maybe back to RJ for a minute, before we then fully commit to the music. He's part of the Ohio MhZ collective, along with Coypwrite, Camu Tao and Jakki The Motamouth. But RJ's not really in tradition to the music that this group brings. Well, at least not when he goes for dolo. And that's where the big difference lies too: while the beats that he creates for artists to rhyme over are dope, they allow themselves to be pushed in the background, leaving the emcees enough room to spit. Case in point are the songs on here, that feature wordy artists, like "Final Frontier" that's one of the early Soul Position songs (with Soul Position being RJ and Weightless' Blueprint) and that's very good, or "F.H.H." that give us Motamouth smacking the wack ish.
What however makes this an almost schizophrenic offering are the instrumental, or the purely sampled songs, the cuts where RJ withdrew from the world to only return once he completed his micro universe through a song. A song that then can go even as far, as creating classic soul and funk, with the singing even being sampled and put to the collaged music. And that makes him one of the best. Yes, one of the best. And if not that, it makes him one of the most creative, most skilled, most exciting and, well, best. In a peculiar niche of producers that are hardly branded with a specific style. And due to that, due to RJ actually moving beyond the merely providing backgrounds for spitters, that's when the break came, and when he moved from one of them to the one. And that's how I was convinced.
And if you need to be convinced too, then I'd suggest a diet of the funk "Good Times Roll Part 2" (unfortunately only part two is on here, that however with the scratching makes it contemporary, while you need to get the white label or the regular "Let The Good Times Roll" 12" to get part one), I suggest "Smoke & Mirrors", that's one of those sampled singing over samples songs, or "Ghostwriter" that has an irresistible groove, with some magnificent horns. On "The Chicken-Bone Circuit" the attention is for a big part on the drum, that are of live character, and of a lonesome character, as the melancholic vibes are rarely completed with more instrumentation. And as said, if you finally want your doubts be digested, then throw it in front of the Captain Future-istic "The Horror".
When listening to RJD2 you need to also listen to the second half of the song. There's a lot that happens in those last moments, that complete (as much as distance themselves from) the beginning. When listening to RJD2 you need to listen. And you need to be aware that he's not the same that he was some time ago. And he's not the same when he's by himself. But he's good. Very good.
review: tadah
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