The Third Hand

"It's more lushly produced, with vocal harmonies and grooves. Like the Zombies, Steely Dan and Daft Punk having some brews in a hot tub. It's sort of garage-y produced pop record, that's got vocal harmonies, some bad-ass guitar tones, very slight riffage, just enough piano and some tough ass drums.”
- RJD2, speaking about 'The Third Hand'

It's 2007, and as usual, popular music finds itself somewhat stagnant. A cadre of important records slated to change the game forever join queue alongside a frequently replenished fresh faced roster of newcomers poised to champion new sounds and take their spoils. Purists in each camp decry the newcomers, citing the respective death of each genre and yearning for the days of old, when records were judged by their own qualities alone and not the amount of blog buzz garnered on the hot new band of the day. What's to be done about the current state of things? Don't ask RJD2. He's been in the basement.

Catapulted to notoriety, fame and uber-serious hip hop credibility with '02's 'Dead Ringer' album, 30-year-old Philadelphia resident and multi-instrumentalist RJD2 has enjoyed a thoroughly prolific career. '04's critically acclaimed follow up 'Since We Last Spoke' nailed it for him. In the last year alone, RJ produced records for his group Soul Position [alongside emcee Blueprint] as well as rising hip hop star Aceyalone and wrote scores for video games and DVDs, in addition to various remixes for artists such as Brazilian superstar Astrud Gilberto.

For 'The Third Hand' though, RJD2 seemingly abandons all the notions and titles that have been placed upon him. Underground hip hop super-producer to many, virtuoso sample-based instrumental wizard to some, RJD2 embodies all of these things on 'The Third Hand', but goes further…

Recorded, performed, arranged and produced entirely by himself in his basement studio, RJD2 commands his trusty MPC2000XL sampler/sequencer alongside a plethora of analog synths, electric pianos and guitars, not to mention his own voice. Most notably, live instruments come seriously into play. The result is a cohesive pop album in the most classic sense, a sound more akin to Phoenix than, say, Prefuse 73. In essence, this is RJD2's entrance into the pantheon of enigmatic songwriter/producers – Jon Brion, Brian Wilson, Stevie Wonder – capable of creating a record of rich songwriting, complex arrangements and clever production.

"That's why artists like RJD2 are important: they're brave, they're risk takers
& modern music needs more of them.”
- Alternative Press (9/10)