 by Steve McPherson
“Can I be honest with you?” asks producer/DJ extraordinaire RJD2 about halfway through our phone interview. “I have a hard time acting like I give a shit about rap. Man, I’ve always listened to other kinds of music. Since I was always around people who were really into hip-hop, hip-hop, hip-hop, I felt like when I was listening to Nick Drake or some shit, or classical music, I felt like it was this weird dirty little secret. People would laugh about it. I’ve never stopped listening to other music. I’ve just realized in the last two years that I’ve been looking at this thing completely backwards. If anything, I shouldn’t feel sheepish about listening to real music where people spent their whole lives honing their skill compared to rap. I’m not trying to shit on rap or anything like that, I just don’t care about the fucking seven elements of hip-hop or whatever-the-fuck, and I don’t care about commercial rap and I don’t care about underground rap. If there’s something that I have a cultural feeling of kinship with, it’s the greater artistic good of American achievement, is the best way I can put it. That, to me, includes anything from Paul McCartney to [artist] Phil Frost to Jim Jarmusch to anything that’s artistic and good. It’s not like I think one is better than the other, I don’t give a fuck about either [mainstream or underground rap]. To be honest with you.”
 Paul
McCartney’s actually British, but I’m not gonna split hairs with
him. RJD2 provides the sterling silver beats behind emcee Blueprint’s
raps for Rhymesayers artists (and Columbus, Ohio, natives) Soul Position. Each
an accomplished solo artist (RJ has released two albums, Deadringer and
Since We Last Spoke, on New York’s Def Jux label and Blueprint
released his solo debut, 1988, on Rhymesayers last year), together they’ve
put out an EP and an album as Soul Position (Unlimited and 8 Million
Stories). Now comes Things Go Better with RJ and Al. RJD2 has become
known as one of the best producers in independent hip-hop, Deadringer
coming off like a kinder, gentler, less chin-stroking DJ Shadow, and the follow-up
adding real live vocals and guitar to the mix. His above response to my question
about the division between mainstream and independent hip-hop was probably the
most illuminating moment of my day, but it shouldn’t have really been
unexpected. I wouldn’t ever consider myself a hip-hop head, but I’ve
noticed a distinct divide between hip-hop producers, who tend to have broader
taste than most any other kind of musician, and emcees, who are often hard-pressed
to come up with their influences or favorite artists. Mostly, they seem to listen
to beats that people are constructing for them or their friends. Like RJ, I’m
not trying to value or devalue either stance; you need focus and single-mindedness
just as much as you need breadth. As we’ll see, there are a lot of differing
opinions in this duo.
Blueprint’s an old-school storyteller emcee who’ll readily cop to
the fact that he’s just a regular guy. When I pop the same question to
him about underground hip-hop, he replies, “I think you feel like it’s
speaking to the average person more than to something you can’t identify
with. I’m not tearing up the club no more; I’m 30 years old. I’m
living life and I’m having fun, but I don’t have a fucking grill
or a fucking expensive car. I think there are a lot of people just like me and
they want to hear good music, but hip-hop is becoming so sensationalized that
sometimes it’s not even speaking to them anymore.” Blueprint builds
his songs around concepts, which is something of a lost art nowadays. Asked
about what makes Blueprint a good collaborator, RJ replies, “He writes
songs? The most important thing to me is people writing songs that are about
something, not songs about nothing, [just] rapping about rapping.”
 “Usually,
everything starts with a concept,” says Blueprint, “and sometimes
it could just be one line. Like ‘The Cool Thing to Do’ started because
my DJ was telling me this conversation about his sister being 15 or 16 and wanting
to get on birth control and not telling him or his mom. And I was thinking,
man, I’m glad I don’t have a little sister; I’d hate to have
to have that conversation about sex and dudes. So it started with an idea, and
then I wrote the first line and from there, I just added on to it. Songs like
that, they are pretty much written [at once]. I think I wrote that one in about
an hour or two hours straight.”
It’s something of a gamble, this reliance on plot and exegesis over strut
and swagger, because when it works on Things Go Better … the
results are thought-provoking in the case of the story of revenge gone wrong
thanks to a fatal error (“Keys”); grin-inducing when it comes to
the familiar pitfalls of drinking and hooking up (“Blame It On the Jager”);
and heartfelt on the musical biopic “Things Go Better,” but it can
also come off a bit preachy or forced when it doesn’t work. Despite boasting
the hottest beat on the disc, the lyrical trope of “I’m Free”—using
the word free in different contexts in just about every line—has been
done better elsewhere while “I Need My Minutes” has a solid if jokey
conceit about cell phones that doesn’t really go anywhere. Throw in a
song about the evils of adolescent sex and you’ve got one of the most
parent-friendly rap albums you’ll hear all year, but even if you happen
to like fronts and dubs and gats, the record is worth it just for RJ’s
compositions.
 True
leadoff track “No Gimmicks” begins with just a thuddingly off-center
beat, but gradually a bassline reveals itself and by the minute-mark an urgently
spiraling string sample has worked its way to the fore. By the end of the track
it sounds more like the outro to a Roni Size outtake than a straight-up hip-hop
jam. “The Extra Mile” sports a happy-go-lucky funk guitar supported
by stabbing horn hits, while “Priceless” is similarly horn-laced,
but more in the vein of ’70s disco, recalling old school joints based
around hooks from groups like Chic before slipping slickly into a fluttery piano
riff for the second half. “I’m Free” rides the hardest on
a heavier guitar riff that recalls RJ’s solo work, and “Things Go
Better” sports the most interesting combo of strings and horns I’ve
heard on a hip-hop track recently. Every eight bars winds up with a measure
that’d be at home accompanying a bank heist in a noir-thriller, and the
whole thing is set against a rolling waltz-time drum groove that’d make
Bernard Purdie proud. The track limns Soul Position’s bumpy history from
Blueprint’s introduction to RJ in Columbus through their abortive first
tour and the making of their most recent effort.
There are still plenty of hurdles: Blueprint likes getting on the road, but
knows that RJ’s not as psyched about it. “I hate it,” says
RJ. “I don’t want to do it. Yeah, I don’t want to think about
it.”
Maybe RJ needs to talk to Ant, who’s been hitting the road with Atmosphere
and loving it, from what I’m told. It’s a long road they’re
on, with more dates on this tour than they’ve performed altogether before.
Eventually, though, it leads home, and RJ can get back to making music along
with his other pasttimes.
“You know what I’ve been watching is ‘Six Feet Under.’
I just finished the second season,” he says. “Netflix is awesome.”
I’d have to agree. ||
Soul Position perform Wed., Apr. 19 at the Triple Rock Social Club
with One Be Low aka Onemanarmy. 9 p.m. 18+. $10/$12.
For more info on Soul Position, check out their label’s website at
rhymesayers.com.
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