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Hopped Up: When Yoda needs beats, he hooks up with RJD2. Out of the Shadows 'Deadringer' sounds the alarm for Def Jux maestro RJD2 By Mosi Reeves RJD2, who is currently all the rage in underground hip-hop circles, is an unlikely candidate for producer of the moment. The Columbus, Ohio, resident didn't start making beats until five years ago, and his first releases were minor productions for local rap star Copywrite ("Tower of Babble"), who subsequently inducted him into the group MHz. It wasn't until he signed with Definitive Jux -- the red-hot record-company brainchild of producer/rapper El-P -- that RJD2 began to attract serious attention for his compositions like "Rain" and "June." His success, then, is partly a product of the hype surroun-ding the dominant independent label in hip hop. To be fair, though, RJD2 is talented, and underground heads didn't just jock his Deadringer harder than DJ Shadow's equally vaunted The Private Press this summer because it came out on Definitive Jux. Unlike the enigmatic Shadow, RJD2 makes tracks that are earthy and whimsical. He usually relies on '60s- and '70s-era soul, jazz and rock breaks, using them to build rollicking tracks like "Take da Picture Off," with its funky, syncopated horn section, and "Let the Good Times Roll," a piano-led romp that channels the spirit of Cannonball Adderley. Girding Deadringer is a punchy emotional center that manifests itself in song titles like "A Shot in the Dark" and "2 More Dead." "Chicken-Bone Circuit," the most emotionally complex song on Deadringer, bustles with rattling cymbals and unpredictable time signatures as a sampled violin menacingly undercuts the tapestry. RJD2's relative accessibility is demonstrated with three collaborations with MCs. One of them, "F.H.H." (an abbreviation for "fuck hip hop"), features a combative lyric from Jakki the Motormouth that sums up many an indie-rap fan's feeling about the "abstract" epithet that has plagued the underground scene for years. "I'm the part of the underground that only feels the raw shit / And I can take a nigga regardless / You can bring your hardest artist, and I'll make them heartless," he says. Elsewhere, Blueprint, his partner in the group Soul Position, spits "a venomous open mic sermon for the trife vermin" on "The Final Frontier" while a sampled voice declares, "The show is over." Even "June," his collaboration with Copywrite, carries two verses: one mourns the death of Copywrite's father; the other pronounces, "we don't do shit for the clubs." These are pro-letarian statements meant to rally grumpy indie-rap kids, not dazzle thirtysomething music fans. While Deadringer appears at first to be a dead ringer for a classic instrumental hip hop album, in fact it is an artistic compromise between the left-field recordings artists like the aforementioned Shadow, DJ Krush, and Coldcut have been making for years and the all-star compilations assembled by popular beat makers like Funkmaster Flex and J. Rawls. Most of RJD2's production tricks (polyrhythmic drums; irony-laden vocal samples culled from films, obscure records, and TV shows) will be familiar to anyone who has followed the former camp. But Deadringer always comes off as an earnest, if exciting, hip hop record. There are no accidental detours into unchar-ted genres, save for a key moment on "Chicken-Bone Circuit" when a blaring horn sounds off while two girls complain about their musician boyfriends. Meanwhile, although they make up only three out of the 15 songs on Deadringer, the rappers' contributions seem to reflect RJD2's true voice, that of an open-minded producer who nevertheless contextualizes his sonic adventures into a raw, caustic worldview. This partly explains why Deadringer sounds unfinished, despite a handful of memorable songs like "Chicken-Bone Circuit" and "F.H.H." RJD2 is an adept producer; he layers his songs with samples that reveal themselves over repeated listens while piecing them together into a harmonious whole. But his vision is limited. It can be stultifying at times, as when he follows up the minute-long fusion-rock journey "The Proxy" with the monotonous foreboding of "2 More Dead." Other times, as with "Let The Good Times Roll Pt. 2," he promises ecstasy and delivers uptempo sampling exercises instead. Then again, some of hip hop's best-loved innovators perfected their signature sounds through repetition and intolerance. Stealing from equal parts Timbaland and Steely Dan, the Neptunes have cranked out samey club anthems for years while subtly achieving new heights in melody and drum patterning. Concurrently, DJ Premier of Gang Starr will always be known as the king of head-ringing, chopped-up loops, although he's used that formula to make a stunningly varied discography. RJD2 hasn't joined that much-admired beat club just yet, but Deadringer proves he has the same sense of tunnel vision. RJD2 appears at the Revenge of the Robots Tour with El-P, Mr. Lif, Cage, Copywrite and DJ Fakts One on Thursday (Oct. 3) at the Great American Music Hall, 859 O'Farrell St., San Francisco. Tickets are $18 and are available through Ticketweb. [ East Bay | Metroactive | Archives ]