by John Bear
Daily Lobo
Producer RJD2 hails from a place not usually associated with hip-hop music - Ohio.
More specifically, he hails from Columbus. That is where he met Blueprint, friend and collaborator on Soul Position.
"We had mutual friends," he said. "Seen him around and stuff. We had groups. I was in Megahertz and he was in a group called Greenhouse Effect, still is."
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RJ is part of the wave of producer-driven hip-hop albums. He said more kids want to be producers than MCs.
"My theory is with the development of hip-hop, it is getting so popular that inevitably there was going to be more producers than MCs," he said. "There's more kids that don't have the inherent MC DNA to be upfront."
He uses a sampler called an MPC to make his music, which first gained notoriety with DJ Shadow's debut album Endtroducing.
"I remember the first time I got an MPC was right before Endtroducing," he said. "I realized the capacity it had. And then Endtroducing came out and somebody had already come up with the idea five years before."
He is working on using the MPC more like a live instrument.
"I got this thing I do where I built a harness, and I play it like a keytar," he said. "Remember the keytar?"
Though he wasn't the first to use the contraption for an entire album, he has received much critical acclaim for his two solo projects Deadringer and Since We Last Spoke. He is working on a third album, but declined to give any details, citing his belief that surprise makes it more interesting.
He said he doesn't put a lot of thought into making a song, choosing to mess around until he comes up with something he likes. Sometimes he will make a drum beat and play guitar over it until he finds a riff that suits him.
RJ and Blueprint released one full-length album, 8 Million Stories, and one EP, Unlimited, and are set to release their second full-length Things Go Better With RJ and Al on Rhymesayers Entertainment next month.
He said the latest album differs from the previous two in his production technique. For example, he used more live instruments such as keyboard and guitar. He said the moods of the songs vary widely.
"This one isn't an all-sample affair," he said. "It's kind of a half-and-half kind of thing. It's still a rap record. Rapping, beats, outside of the box. There's some fast songs, slow songs, fun songs, serious songs."
He tends to make the beats beforehand, and then sends them to Blueprint who will pick the ones he likes. RJ will then tinker with them until they work.
He said he likes working with Blueprint because of his sincerity on the microphone.
"He's an honest guy, raps about stuff he knows about," he said. "He is easy to get along with, and he is always working hard at improving."
Blueprint rhymes about fairly nonstandard topics, including giving advice to a young niece on how to deal with the advances of boys, and issues a warning friends not to waste his cell phone minutes. On the final track, he tells the tale of meeting RJ and the trials and tribulations that have befallen the duo.
The two performed at the South by Southwest Music Festival in March, an event RJ usually despises.
"I usually hate Southwest," he said. "It's such a fucking industry smorgasbord, too much madness. It's like Lollapalooza."
He said he uses two turntables and an MPC when he performs with Blueprint. For his solo work, he ups the ante, using four turntables, an MPC and sometimes a guitar.
He is influenced by the music he listens to. He is in the middle of what he calls a classic rock phase, listening to ZZ Top, ELO, Paul McCartney and Wings. He didn't say whether any of it would make it onto any forthcoming projects.
"Really, I just start going through records, don't think about it too much," he said. "I will noodle around until I find some harmonic thing I like or listen to other music."
