• artist: rjd2 (aka john krohn)
• album: the colossus
• label: rj’s elec­trical connections
• genre: turntables
• street date: january 19^th, 2010
• web­site: rj’s elec­trical connections
• rating: 3.5 out of 5

as an old-​school def-​jux fanboy, i pretty much was a fan of everything that label released, regard­less of whether or not it was actu­ally good music. just the fact that it was one of the few inde­pendent hip hop labels reppin’ the east was all that mattered. regard­less of what you think of el-​p (aka james meline) per­son­ally, his cadre of musi­cians under his label was pretty impressive and was the who’s who of inde­pendent beat­making. i mean yeah, it was the pree­m­inent back­packer label, but who gives a shit, right? back­packer hip hop was basic­ally the only decent hip hop being released for a long time. so when rjd2 released dead­ringer on def-​jux back in 2002, an entire com­munity basic­ally shit their pants. hot off the heels of dj shadow’s second effort, the private press, rjd2 stepped up to the bat­ters box to chal­lenge for the title of turntable supremacy.

like the afore­men­tioned dj shadow, who had already carved out a recipe for awe­some­ness with his debut, entro­du­cing, years earlier, rjd2 showed that there was another player on the scene who had just as big, if not bigger, a record col­lec­tion that vinyl nerds every­where pissed their pants over. rumours had it, at the time, rjd2 had at least 10 000 records stored some­where in the base­ment closet of his mom’s house.

after two albums, rjd2 switched record labels, going from def-​jux to xl record­ings and ended up con­fusing his fan­base. each record since dead­ringer has had its own iden­tity, veering off in their own des­tin­a­tion to the point where genre-​jockeys argued over if you could still con­sider rjd2 to be a hip hop artist (or even if he was hip hop in the first place). the debate raged just before he released his third album, aptly titled the third hand. rjd2 went on record stating that he was going to make a pop album. and folks shit their pants again when it was released — it sounded nothing like dead­ringer or since we last spoke. gone were the tech­nical cuts, scratches, and obscure sampling, and for the first time, he was singing on basic­ally all of his tracks. he went from turntable hero to indie rock crooner, a shock to his fans who had grown accus­tomed to his erratic beat­making. but it cer­tainly wasn’t a pop album either. to this day, the third hand remains his most divisive album among his fans — some love it, some hate it, others are indifferent.

now, rjd2 decided to back his bags and start his own label — rj’s elec­trical con­nec­tions — and released his latest album, the colossus, on it. with this release, it is pretty much safe to say that rjd2 refuses to be pigeon­holed. this album, like every other one he has released before, has a dis­tinct iden­tity. the artist who released the colossus today almost has nothing in common with the one who released dead­ringer. i’m con­vinced that if you listened to both records inde­pendent of the other and had no idea who rjd2 was, you would be sur­prised to find out they were made with the same guys. gone is the dom­inant sampling and glitch­work — the colossus is a more melodic album with more con­ven­tional song struc­tures, and the sampling is a lot more subtle and more com­ple­mentary to the overall track, blending easily into each track instead of standing out. but while the overall sound of rjd2 has changed since the dead­ringer days, the colossus is still filled with every ounce of talent that everyone knew rjd2 had in his fingertips.

for long time fans of rjd2, they are going to love this album simply because it’s some­thing rjd2 released. for fans of music in gen­eral who aren’t par­tic­u­larly familiar with rjd2, there is a lot to like here. the tracks fea­ture the vocal­iz­a­tions of the third hand, excel­lent sampling and instru­ment­a­tion, and a prom­inent jazzy-​feel that threads itself through the entire album. fans of his earlier efforts with blue­print and the whole soul pos­i­tion pro­jects will not be dis­ap­pointed either. hip hop also makes a prom­inent return on the colossus. the only knock i can give to this album is its low energy and lack of a standout track. the album flows together so well, that the album feels like one long song. which can be a good or bad thing, depending on who you are.

and if you’ve ever been to an rjd2 show, you know how important energy is. but rjd2 is one of those artists who always sounds much better live than he does on record, so i’m pretty sure that even this album will make you jump around at his shows, espe­cially when he’s throwing tonnes of free shit at you from the dj booth.

Track listing

1. “Let There Be Horns” – 4:09
2. “Games You Can Win” – 5:26
   • fea­turing Kenna
3. “Giant Squid” – 4:08
4. “Salud 2″ – 0:49
5. “The Glow” – 4:26
6. “A Space­ship For Now” – 3:15
7. “The Shining Path” – 4:08
   • fea­turing Phonte Coleman
8. “Crumbs Off The Table” – 4:04
   • fea­turing Aaron Liv­ing­ston
9. “A Son’s Cycle” – 4:05
   • fea­turing The Cata­lyst, Illogic & NP
10. “Tin Flower” – 3:48
11. “Small Plans” – 4:32
12. “Gypsy Caravan” – 2:13
13. “The Stranger” – 3:59
14. “Walk With Me” – 5:24
15. “Games You Can Win (Nic­olay Remix)” – 5:04 (iTunes bonus track)
    • fea­turing Kenna