RJD2: Time Has the Final Word

In the early 2000s after releasing a few mix tapes – namely Your Face or Your Kneecaps, which I found in a Columbus library oddly enough - that really were able to include more music in sixty minutes than most thought possible, RJD2 did the unthinkable. He was able to match the hype that surrounded him with the release of Dead Ringer on Def Jux in 2002.

That disc single handedly made RJ a house hold name for heads across the States and even in Europe. At the time, there wasn’t really anyone that was able to join dusty funk with futuristic keyboard music and make it sound listenable in a boom bap sorta way. His follow up, the 2004 Since We Last Spoke was received with tempered enthusiasm as were the Magnificent City Instrumentals two years later. In Rare Form, which collected some unreleased material surfaced as well, but the world still awaited a third full length statement from the producer.

But as with any narrative – or career – the proceedings were poised for a misstep. Third Hand, Rj’s follow up, was summarily panned in pretty much every media outlet throughout the country with the caveat of RJ’s creativity still being intact – just mislead – accompanying each write up. That disc, which eschewed hip hop for heart felt rock songs, ended up alienating a great deal of his following, while simultaneously, herding in the youngsters. So, maybe it was all conceived of before hand and RJD2 is really just a marketing genius. Maybe.

That was two years ago – which to anyone relying on making music for a living, is a lifetime. But thanks to the glories and pratfalls of MySpace, RJD2 has given the world three new instrumentals to tide ‘em over until his new disc is completed.

The three tracks, “Morning Break” “Time Has the Final Word” and “Song for You,” are so far removed from Third Hand that it’s almost as if that disc didn’t exist. In the future, though, that third album will probably be sought after as a novelty.

Anyway, accompanying the posting of these songs is a brief message from the Columbus-cum-Philly producer saying that the new disc is “very near to completion” and that he’s in the process of sorting the business end out. But fans should expect a 2009 release. RJ goes on to say that the guests – emcees presumably – are pretty exciting as well

Surely, the press, when this disc is released, will herald RJ’s return to tradition. But the funny thing about that is that, when hip hop was becoming a market force, many decried it as a passing fad. And now it’s really been codified.

There can’t be too much of an argument that Third Hand was really a rap disc masquerading as rock – it simply wasn’t. But there’re a great many Mos Def and Cee Lo tracks out there that seem a bit detached from what hip hop is supposed to be. So with those two acts remaining fervently checked names, all shouldn’t too quickly dismiss RJ’s last release solely because of this new effort.