RJD2 has come a long way since he first started making beats in his bedroom more than a decade ago. Back then, he couldn't get any labels to pay attention to his sample-driven instrumental funk hop. Nowadays, the Philly-based DJ, producer, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist (aka "Ramble" John Krohn, RJ for short) is celebrating freedom from label support altogether with the launch of his own label, RJ's Electrical Connections.
"It just seems to me the most sensible way to approach the future," he told me in a phone interview as he geared up for the holidays and his forthcoming tour. RJ is now a free agent without help (or hindrance) from a label, which puts him in control of the creative and business aspects of his life and cuts out the middle man entirely. "We don't know how things are going to shake out, how to monetize art, how to sell music, so I'd rather be in a position where I'm undershooting the market. No responsibilities or overhead to worry about."
RJD2's decision to work for himself is unsurprising in an industry where the need for label support seems to be dwindling. "What I really lose is the so-called 'muscle' that a larger label would have. In my experience, that muscle is questionable. I'm not saying it's horseshit, but I don't have complete faith that every single medium-to-large indie label is putting 100 percent of their resources and energy into every single record they put out."
It really boils down to what the label can do for you versus what you can do for yourself. "The whole campaign for The Third Hand was kind of an eye-opening experience," he explained, referring to his 2007 third album and sole release on XL Recordings. "I realized, basically, that there's work that needs to be done, but there isn't a lot of mystery as to what needs to be done. I'm not saying that it's easy, but I am saying that it's not rocket science and it's feasible for me to do."
RJ has already re-acquired the master recordings of his first three releases from Definitive Jux (Deadringer, The Horror EP and Since We Last Spoke) and re-issued them on vinyl and CD via RJ's Electrical Connections along with three separate digital releases of B-sides and rarities and a 10-year anniversary vinyl box set. This upcoming Tues., Jan. 19, RJD2 will drop his fourth full-length and first new release on his label: The Colossus.
RJD2's resume leading up to RJ's Electrical Connections and The Colossus is pretty damn impressive on its own. Recorded several solo albums across multiple labels and genres, hitting the Billboard charts along the way; scored Marc Ecko's Getting Up graffiti-fighting video game; generated remixes for Massive Attack, Mos Def and Polyphonic Spree, among others; produced tracks for various indie rappers and worked on collaborative hip-hop side projects like Soul Position with rap artist Blueprint and the 2006 album Magnificent City with Aceyalone; won ASCAP'S "Best TV Theme" award for the Mad Men theme song.
His earlier releases had a distinctive groove-oriented approach, and revealed a producer with a keen ear for sonic textures and a well-honed sense of how to pace songs and where to place songs for maximum effect. By his second solo LP, 2004's definitive Since We Last Spoke, he showed himself a sampler maestro, drawing from late-'70s rock and funk records to give his hip-hop a retro rockin' drive, deftly using sampled vocals to give the songs their catchy hooks and emotional appeal, and flavoring his sonicscape with warm A.M. soul, Latin jazz, funkadelic R&B and soft '80s rock.
The Third Hand found RJD2 moving mostly out of his sample-based comfort zone and into the uncharted territory. Aside from using drum samplers for beats, RJ performed on all the instruments (keys, guitars, synths and the like) and produced all the sounds he used in a studio he'd built specifically for the project. Most surprising was his debut as a rather capable vocalist.
The melodies for that album were written to fit his own singing abilities. RJD2 switched gears yet again for The Colossus. "I essentially let the vocal parts come out in the way they seemed most appropriate to the songs, with disregard as to how well I could execute them. I was trying to pay very close attention to, essentially, how the song wanted to be." He still wrote, arranged and demoed all the tracks beforehand, but brought on guest vocalists and rappers when certain songs were better suited to someone else's voice. "The deal was basically, I know you can sing the song better than I can, are you willing to? At the end of the day, I felt like it worked."
The Colossus fuses all the techniques and working approaches RJD2 has employed over the years — samples, live players and/or instrumentation, guests, no guests, a small dose of collaboration, no collaboration at all, and hybrids all throughout. There are songs that are instrumental à la the sci-fi fuzziness of "A Spaceship for Now," and songs driven by vocals like the album's smooth-grooving single "Games You Can Win" featuring soulful Ethiopian-born singer Kenna, and the funky synthedelic stroll of "The Glow" with RJD2's pleasantly high white boy croon bringing up the rear. Several guest instrumentalists provide rich organic texture to The Colossus with sax, flute, clarinet, trumpet, mandolin, cello, viola and violin. RJD2 himself returned to his instrument-packed studio and squeezed sounds from acoustic and electric pianos, clavinet, several vintange synthesizers, a Hammond organ, harpsichord, acoustic and electric guitars, bass, glockenspiel, vibraphone and hand percussion. The Colossus also marked RJ's debut on acoustic drums. "I'm constantly trying to accumulate new instruments and new ways to use them." Overall, the album maintains a laid-back, retro soul feel with forays into hip-hop symphonic drama, funkadelic psyche rock and electrofied outerspace.
RJD2's stage set-up for full band shows (like on his tour for The Colossus) incorporates drums, keys, bass and guitar with his DJ'd moments. "The sets kind of ebb and flow. There are parts where I'm alone with a turntable and a sampler, and then there are parts that have nothing to do with electronics and we'll just be jamming. I might end up playing bass, or keys, or guitar." RJD2 says all his instrumentalists are proficient, so jumping around isn't a big deal. "We never play to a click track or pre-recorded material, so it keeps you on your toes and it keeps it interesting. I mean, granted, it's not like we're changing the setlists or the songs constantly, but just having that breathability built into the performance probably makes the shows the most exciting part of the whole thing, really."
