The Splice of Life

Rjd2's solo debut full-length, Dead Ringer (Definitive Jux), is one of those hip-hop albums that reminds people that this kind of music can be diverse, simultaneously progressive and classic. Rjd2 utilizes rich production to showcase an arsenal of instrumental tunes - from hard hip-hop tracks to more intricately crafted, jazz and soul-oriented numbers - as well as songs that feature both MCs and sampled vocal tracks. The majority of this Columbus, Ohio-based artist's work is what is sometimes referred to as "found sound" music; song constructions built largely out of samples culled from pre-existing sources - usually vinyl - and spliced together to form new compositions. A pastiche created mostly from this construction process, Dead Ringer is 16 tracks of eclectic but universally vibed music that could be seen as a product of Rj's career to date.
As a solo artist, Rjd2's short list of single releases is of formidable quality, and his mix CD, Your Face or Your Kneecaps, is an underground classic. His work with MCs like Blueprint, Copywrite and El-P for respected labels like Def Jux and Fondle 'Em has solidified him as a worthy partner for any MC with the skills to keep up with Rj's music on the mic, and he's quickly becoming known far and wide as a prolific producer who possesses a unique and learned take on music. The quality of the sound and the caliber of the music on Dead Ringer has made the record somewhat of a crossover hit, appealing not only to the indie hip-hop fans, but also to typically young-middle-aged music lovers whose tastes run in the vein of DJ Shadow, Moby and Thievery Corporation. High-praise reviews of the album that also contain comparisons to those artists in magazines like Spin have fueled an interest by a wider audience, but they're not necessarily the kinds of comparisons that Rj appreciates (though he probably appreciates the business).
Rjd2 still holds it down on the indie rap tip, recently releasing Soul Positon: The Unlimited EP with Blueprint, and hitting the road with MC / Definitive Jux label head El-P, as well as Mr. Lif, Cage and Copywrite on a month-long national tour. Rjd2 took some time out of his busy schedule - which included a recent move from his native Columbus to Philadelphia, PA - to field some questions about his background and making music on the forefront of the hip-hop genre.

How did you get started DJing?
I always collected records, and the vinyl format was a necessity more than a conscious decision. It was really the only format that I had for music when I was a kid. I got into hip-hop from some of the kids in my neighborhood in Columbus at an early age, and the first thing the kids put me up on was UTFO, and the first UTFO tape was the first thing that I ever bought. So I was into that, and then Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince was my favorite shit when I was in elementary school. In middle school, I got into Public Enemy, but I also got into hard rock, like Led Zeppelin and stuff like that. So I kinda just bounced back and forth, and ever since about 10 or 15 years ago, I'll go through hip-hop phases, rock phases, soul phases - I've always been into music but my focus kind of drifts because I get bored easily. When I was in high school, a good friend of mine - the kid who gave me my name - he was flat broke and was selling his 1200s [Technics turntables] with a mixer and a bunch of records for like 400 bucks, so I just said 'fuck it.' I mean, he had all these classic 12-inches that I really wanted, and on top of that he was giving up two 1200s and a mixer, and the price should have been twice that. So I was just like, 'Fuck it, I'll just buy this shit for the records and if I don't wanna keep the turntables, I'll sell 'em.' Then I started fucking around with it and it was fun, so I got into it.

When you're making music or a beat for an MC, where do you start?
It all depends on what it is. Variety and diversity was my number one priority with this album, and not just different moods and different tempos and different styles of production, but going further than that. I even tried to make it have different approaches to song structures. There were certain songs like "Work" and "Let The Good Times Roll, Part 1," which is only on the 12-inch, that started with the vocals. I had the vocal sample and I just built around it. That's the easiest way to do that kind of song because when you get into a thing where you manipulate vocals a lot, it just starts to sound choppy and digital and it'll fuck with the organic sound of the music. And especially with those songs, I was kind of trying to fool the listener into thinking, 'Is this a producer or a group?' On certain songs, I really tried to mask anything that you might be able to relate to production techniques. Once I had done that a couple of times, it kind of consumed my thinking about the record. I spent a lot of time working on this album, like I said, trying to fool the listener into thinking that they're listening to an old band instead of just a guy with a sampler.

Is there a single constant theme on Dead Ringer?
Yeah, actually. It was an attempt to do something that I think I was only partially successful with. I was trying to express a different mood in every song, take an idea and execute, but just have it be like 16 different ideas that really have nothing to do with each other - some things with vocal samples, some things with rappers, some things instrumental, something fast, some things slow, happy, sad, etcetera. But I feel like there are a few songs that just winded up sounding a little bit too much like each other for my own taste.

As you wrote and produced the tracks for the album, did you go back through them and find that they weren't full enough in places?
Totally, it really was a process of trial and error. Like the vocal part that I sampled in "Work" was an a capella, and in the original song the singer sings that refrain again later over music. But the music is in a major key and sounds really happy and cheesy so I thought, what if I could take the a capella vocal part and instead of putting major chords under it, put minor chords under it? It's a 12-bar major blues progression, so I just wrote the relative minor chords of each of the original song's chords, transposing each major chord into a minor chord. And then what I had to do was go out and find all these chords. So I needed like an A minor and an E minor and a B minor, preferably all from the same source record so they had the same sound… Please stop me if I'm losing you.

Not at all. It sounds like you have a traditional music background. There aren't a lot of DJs and hip-hop producers who can speak technically about chord transposition and song construction.
Yeah, I went to a vocational music school in high school and it was kind of one of the things that drove me further into hip-hop, because I studied music theory and all this other shit, and I hated it. It was just really dry. Now I'm glad that I did it because I've needed that knowledge, but at the time it was so confined and rigid - it was some shit that you read in a book, you know what I mean? At the same time I was going to local hip-hop events, and it was like there were no rules whatsoever. I mean, there were rules, they just weren't in any books, and it was just the wildest shit, man. In Columbus, at the battles they used to have at this local joint called The Groove Shack, they didn't have judges, but they didn't need judges because everyone there was such an avid hip-hop fan and was so into the battles that everybody always knew who won. It was always unanimous. That was such a big deal to me, it was so cool and it wasn't in a book anywhere. That kinda sunk me right into it all - that's the reaction that I had coming from a traditional music background.

At what point did the traditional music background and the love for hip-hop come together?
I've always been a stickler about things being in key and stuff, I think it was just always one of those things that I couldn't escape. I've tried so hard to do songs where I abandoned that train of thought, but it's so ingrained in me from years of listening to and making music. I don't exactly know where the two came together because music is one of those things that's always in the back of my head. I'm always picking little things apart - when I hear something like fuckin' Beyoncé on a Destiny's Child track and her sevenths are flat and I'm just like, 'Jesus Christ, what the fuck?!' Whatever it is, man, I just can't get away from it.

Do you approach making beats for MCs differently than making instrumental tracks?
It's fun because it's a different challenge. I'm not trying to shine, I'm just trying to make a good song. My job is just to make a dope beat. So for one, there's a lot less responsibility, but two, it's a kinda like the 'less is more' ethic as it applies to rap music. You know, people don't like Pete Rock or Premier because they're these technical wizards or geniuses, they have incredible ears and they know how to make a dope-ass two-bar loop that you wanna listen to for three minutes. It's a completely different challenge from what I do on solo records and people underestimate the difficulty of that, but I'm telling you, it is so hard. I would say that I've had to spend three times as much time learning to do that than I've spent learning to get two samples in the same key.

Do you prefer one over the other?
It's just two different things. It's like water and coffee - I need 'em both.

What do you do differently with the music when you go on the road?
It kinda depends on what the context is. If I'm out with the Def Jux guys, I'll do a little DJ set before the rap show, and DJ for them during the show. But I'm now at a point where I'm actually getting offers for bookings by myself. I've been toying with a couple of things, but it's hard because I have an issue: I don't wanna go out with a sampler. As interesting as it might be music-wise, it's visually very boring to me. I see rappers do it and I'm always like, 'That's fuckin' stupid.' I'm about entertainment, and I think I've been brainwashed from seeing so many rap shows. Who wants to see a guy behind a computer pressing buttons? How boring is that? I'm not trying to knock anyone, but it's not my thing. So what I'm doing is, I use the album and I take some of the records that I used to make the album and I'll incorporate them into the songs. I kinda treat it like a DJ set where I play a few other things, but not really any of the rap shit…maybe a bit of the shit that I've produced for other people.
At some shows, to give it more of a live, interactive feel, I've been doing this thing that's sorta like a hip-hop Jeopardy. I'll take original breaks from 45s and LPs that have been used on really classic rap records and stuff that people should know, and I'll bring two people up on stage and then drop the needle on the record. The first person to name the famous artist and track that samples the break gets to keep the record, so people go home with cool, original 45s and LPs. My whole thing is that I'm just trying to make my show worth your money, man.

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