MIND INVERSION

Rjd2 is one badass dude, he released Deadringer in 2002 (one of my favorite albums of all time), and roughly one year later he released this ten track gem otherwise known as The Horror EP. Don’t get me wrong, Deadringer is a multi-level musical masterpiece but I think The Horror EP is a little better. This EP has ten top tier tracks, revisits some of the best moments of Deadringer and further more, it features some of Rj’s best beats. I feel as though if this was the only material that you owned by Rjd2, you would still be listening to his best music.

The EP starts off with Deadringer’s lead track and the EP’s title track “The Horror” which is full of heavy percussion, hard rolling bass lines as well as plentiful vocal samples. I love “The Horror” it always reminded me of opening music to a horror (no pun intended) or suspendse movie. The remix of “Ghostwriter” is sure to please all of the diehard Rj fans, it gives the song a new twist while keeping the defining elements of the original track (the ear tattering triumphant horns). Me and my friend Erik (who also writes) always talk about the track “Bus Stop Bitties”, it has a great uptempo beat full of high pitched horns, bleepy synths and funky drum kicks. I often find myself singing “CORNBREEEAD” to myself and wondering if people are paying attention to how crazy I look. Another one of my favorite tracks on this album is “Good Times Roll, Pt. 1” which features thunderous cymbal smashes and low pitched horns mixed with soulful vocal samples. “Good Times Roll, Pt. 1” is a great track that you can dance to without hesitation.

My favorite track on this album, however, is the Rj’s crafty remix of the track “Final Frontier”. The track features Blueprint, Aesop Rock, Vast Aire & Murs. Everyone of these emcees spits a potent verse over Rj’s mixture of spaced out drum loops, assortment of horns and guitar loops. This tack is magnificent, and this one track alone might justify the purchase of this entire EP alone.

This EP to me is just as good as 90% of full lengths out there. Rjd2 is one of the most talented musicians I’ve ever heard and this is outing is one short, yet very spectacular insight into just how good he really is. If you don’t have this EP, I highly suggest you go out and get it. This is Rjd2 in his Def Jux prime and it would be a sad shame for anyone to sleep on this material.

9.2 Def Jux Baby Tees Out of 10

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 3, 2009 at 3:38 pm and is filed under Wildstyle Wednesdays with tags Aesop Rock, Blueprint, Dead Ringer, Def Jux, Murs, Rjd2, Vast Aire. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.