#150 Rjd2 - Deadringer

Once again, part of my underground hip-hop list-scouring.

I think I had Rjd2 recommended to me back in the day, but a) I don't think my tastes were up for this then; and b) this was back when I was getting my music a track at a time, and I only heard a couple songs. This works far better as an album.

There's 3 kinds of songs on here:

1. Atmospheric Endtroducing-esque tracks. I'd be shocked if this album wasn't influenced by DJ Shadow, it has a similar approaches to beats, to lurking strings, to vocal samples, to mood and atmosphere.
   
2. Full-on rap tracks, which are decent.
   
3. Fatboy Sliim-esque sample-composed pop songs, which are actually some of the highlights here. There's good energy.
   

The latter two categories result in a more diverse, less hypnotic feel than most pure instrumental hip hop albums', for better or for worse. It works pretty well front to back, with good ebbs and flows, high energy tracks and ponderers.

There was something hacky about this that I couldn't put my finger on though. It felt a bit slick on my first listen. Maybe it's because its approach to mining old soul, blues and pre-blues for samples reminds me of Moby's Play - which in turn evokes that album's overslickness*. That seems a little ridiculous now that I write it out, but hey, that's what came to mind. Maybe I'll get over it and accept that this was a thoroughly enjoyable listen. Certainly good enough for a 4/5

* For the record, despite its overslickness, I still like Play.