Soul Position has its own hip-hop blueprint
By Chris Nixon
For The San Diego Union-Tribune
May 4, 2006
If you let the TV define what black is / You think that ice and violence is all that matters / I guess this is what happens / When rappers look up to up thugs / And kids look up to rappers, rhymes MC Blueprint on the Soul Position single “Hand Me Downs.”
Blueprint doesn't shy away from visceral issues like violence and race in his raps, instead coming at you with clear-eyed consciousness and a lucid vision of tomorrow.
“Even when I write something funny, I try to make it so there's some kind of message in there,” says Blueprint, riding in his tour van en route to a show in Des Moines, Iowa. “But, at the same time, we didn't want to make a dark, bleeding heart, artsy, political record. We try to create songs with a message that people can actually move to.”
The balance to Blueprint's socially conscious rhymes comes in the form of RJD2, aka RJ Krohn and the other half of Soul Position. The 29-year-old arranger and sonic sculptor produced a literal who's who of underground hip-hop (Aceyalone, Murs, Cannibal Ox, Aesop Rock, Diverse). He's also released two of his own successful albums: “Dead Ringer” in 2002 and “Since We Last Spoke” in 2004. His style has been compared to a less-pompous DJ Shadow, shaping old-school vinyl samples into a hip-hop collage.
RJD2 brings a lighter, more party vibe to Soul Position jams, acting as equilibrium to Blueprint's pointed diatribes. For the producer, working with MCs provides an exercise in more subtle techniques: “It's an opportunity to play by the rules and stay inside the box. It's a challenge.”
The duo met in their hometown of Columbus, Ohio, finding common ground in the tightknit hip-hop community in a town not normally associated with rap. They debuted with “8 Million Stories” in 2003, followed by “Things Go Better With RJ and Al” (released last month).
During the making of the last album, RJD2 lived in Philadelphia while Blueprint still called Columbus his home. Through e-mails, phone calls and a couple of visits, “Things Go Better” came together virtually through long-distance communication. The musical dialogue between the two musicians remains at the heart of Soul Position.
“We have an honest relationship,” says RJD2, comparing Soul Position to other production gigs he's had in the past. “We get on the phone and we can accurately critique aspects of a song. When you don't know somebody that well, it can be kind of weird to be constructively criticizing a song. There's no concern about feelings when we're working on music together. We can just be honest. It's easier to be straightforward and say what you're thinking.”
Despite the stereotypes Blueprint criticizes in “Hand Me Downs,” hip-hop has come a long way when it comes to accepting blacks and whites working together in the rap context. Blueprint (a black man) doesn't sense any pushback from the public in terms of working with RJD2 (a white guy).
“Back in the day, hip-hop was a real 'pro black' thing,” recalls Blueprint. “But nowadays, people aren't tripping about that kind of stuff. Rap is the voice of the youth of America and of the disenfranchised, people who don't have a voice. It's not a matter of black or white, it's a matter of right and wrong.”
Chris Nixon is a San Diego music writer.
