RJD2: The Colossus

Label: RJ's Electrical Connections

Before scoring the Mad Men theme, RJD2 rose to fame in Columbus, Ohio, in the late-‘90s making beats for local hip-hop artists. Since then, through several albums on Definitive Jux and now, his own imprint, he’s kept expanding the notion of “hip-hop producer” to the point where now, an RJD2 joint is just as likely to feature sweet soul-pop vocalizing (sometimes his own) or Motown-gone-modern rhythms. Enter The Colossus, a full-fledged affair of almost symphonic proportions that ably shows off the producer’s many skills and interests. A handful of tracks feature farmed-out vocals (including one with Phonte of Little Brother, singing R&B smoothly), and a few others clearly scan as hip-hop instrumentals. But over the course of the whole record, a mix of pop-leaning funk and soul that sometimes resembles those old action-jazz records of the early-stereo era, RJ establishes himself as something of a modern-day David Axelrod, the can-do-anything producer best known for his technicolor jazz and psych studio experiments of the 60s and 70s. Dig deep into The Colossus — these grooves have flavor and purpose. (Marty)