From RJD2′s latest album More Is Than Isn’t available now. Regarding the concept of the video, RJD2 explained, “Thom Glunt’s idea for “Descended From Myth” was a perfect fit for the song. I’ve been asked time and time again, ‘How do you make your records? What does the process look like?’ So the idea that the song came from a massive musical automaton of sorts seemed to be a great narrative for a song like this.”

“‘How Will It End’ is the culmination of Imitation is Suicide,” says Kenna. “This is probably the most innovative song in the series, and in order to make that kind of music you have to work with someone like RJ. He and I make alien waveforms. It’s just wherever our imagination takes us.”

“Working with Kenna on ‘How Will it End’ was like it should be – easy going, with great results,” adds RJD2. “I was surprised at first that he picked that track, cause it’s got a strange change-up halfway through, but after the fact, I realize it’s kinda right up his alley. I’m excited for folks to hear the EP, and to get some more music going in the future with him.”

Imitation is Suicide is a unique, 3-part movement of EPs with a brilliant mix of multiple genres spotlighting alternative, funk, R&B, rock, and hip-hop meshed with electronic and an encyclopedic knowledge of pop melodies.

RJD2 has had a long and storied career as one of the defining artists of the indie hip-hop movement, largely responsible – alongside El-P – for shaping the sound of Definitive Jux Records, and many of the label’s affiliated artists. Largely an instrumentalist, RJ took the world by storm with his earliest releases, Dead Ringer and Since We Last Spoke. Between the two records, RJ found his tracks being tapped for car commercials and soccer team anthems, ultimately leading to perhaps his most high profile gig yet, providing the title theme to AMC’s Mad Men.

But since sample-based music can be quite expensive – either via clearances or lawsuits – RJ has had to find other means for creating his sound over the years. His latest, as always, cryptically titled album, More Is Than Isn’t, is a culmination of almost all of his projects, showing the depth of his catalog.

Largely instrumental based, RJ has crafted another solid LP that finds him speaking more through his beats and less through vocals. Songs like “Her Majesty’s Socialist Request” and “Behold, Numbers!” are so dynamic in structure that they don’t the added value of guest vocals, proving why RJ has been able to sustain a career this long based largely around instrumental beats. Things get heavier on songs like “Winter Isn’t Coming” and “A Lot Of Night Ahead Of You”, both of which create a properly chilled out vibe.

The album is almost equally split with vocal driven tracks, drawing largely from his catalog of previous collaborators. Icebird partner Aaron Livingston shows up for “Love and Go”, while Soul Position frontman, Blueprint helps close the album out with “It All Came To Me In A Dream”, perhaps suggesting that would be RJ’s next project. Little Brother/Foreign Exchange head Phonte Coleman kicks off the album with “Temperamental”, while new emcee P. Blackk holds his own on “Bathwater”. The best of all of these vocal cuts is “See You Leave”, alongside Roots-collaborators STS and Khari Mateen, which just might be the album’s most fully realized “single”, if you will. RJ even belts out a few notes himself on “Dirty Hands”, showing off just enough of his vocal chops.

The one thing missing from More Is Than Isn’t is RJ’s brand of stand out “banger”, which in the past came in the form of “Ghost Writer” or “The Horror”. Naturally RJ’s cavalier past use of samples has been stunted a bit, with hungry lawyers eyeing his beats for potential cases, and it does show to some degree. Nevertheless, RJ has crafted a very solid LP with More Is Than Isn’t, and entering his second decade as a solo artist, he doesn’t show signs of stopping any time soon.

In this episode, RJD2 talks about his darkest musical moment, why he’ll buy any record with “Philadelphia” songs on it, and why he thinks vinyl will die out with his generation. Crate Diggers profiles people with extraordinary vinyl record collections, with owners displaying and telling the stories behind their collections. Two HipHopSite.Com 45′s seen in the top left corner.

More Is Than Isn’t out October 8th on RJ’s Electrical Connections.

Remix of the first single off RJD2′s More Is Than Isn’t, out Oct. 8, 2013 on RJ’s Electrical Connections.

RJD2 tells us about his new album, More Is Than Isn’t:

“More Is Than Isn’t is available Oct. 8th on my label RJ’s Electrical Connections. The album is largely instrumental, but I still worked with some great vocalists/friends like Phonte Coleman, Aaron Livingston, Blueprint, P. Blackk, STS, and Khari Mateen. I’m really proud of the range on this album. While I’m tempted to get deeper into descriptions, I also like the idea of you all listening with a clean slate. Just know that I wouldn’t bother releasing it if I didnt think it was funky as hell.”

More Is Than Isn’t Tracklisting:

01. Suite 1
02. Temperamental (feat. Phonte Coleman)
03. Behold, Numbers!
04. Her Majesty’s Socialist Request
05. A Lot of Night Ahead of You
06. Bathwater (feat. P. Blackk)
07. Milk Tooth
08. Suite 2
09. Winter Isn’t Coming
10. See You Leave (feat. STS and Khari Mateen)
11. Got There, Sugar?
12. Love and Go (feat. Aaron Livingston)
13. Descended From Myth
14. Dirty Hands
15. It All Came To Me In A Dream (feat. Blueprint)
16. Suite 3

Directed by Ivan Ives. Produced by RJD2. The two met while on the set of one of the Icebird videos. Entire video shot on iPhone with 8mm app.

Next week, Illogic & Blockhead will release their first collaborative full-length album, Capture The Sun. The album, which includes features from Slug, Blueprint, Abstract Rude, and more, will be released on TK via Man Bites Dog Records, and today, Illogic & Blockhead are debuting a non-album exclusive remix of album track “Live From the Horizon.” The song was remixed by fellow DJ/producer, and Columbus, Ohio, native, RJD2 and was premiered by Rolling Stone.

RJD2’s remix is a complete reimagining of the song. The song gets transformed from a punchy and aggressive vendetta into a trippy reflection. “I was really excited with the direction RJ took the remix,” remarked Blockhead. “It’s cool when someone flips the entire vibe of a song on it’s back, ’cause it basically feels like creating an entire new song.” That sort of 180-degree change is possible because of the songs subject matter – mistrust and falling out with friends. “When close friends treat you like crap for a while then songs like Live from the Horizon are born,” Illogic explains. “Blueprint told me most great art can’t exist with out Pain.” For RJD2′s part, the collaboration was a nice reunion with Illogic, the two having spent years working in the same underground scene. “Illogic and I cut our teeth at roughly the same time in the Columbus underground,” recalls RJ. “We’ve know each other for a long time, and it was cool to reconnect on this remix.”

Man Bites Dog Records is proud to present the MHz Legacy newest video for the song “Satisfaction” featuring Slug & produced by RJD2 .This video is directed by Snow Rowe.

The song stars Tage Future, who takes a solo opportunity over a whipping, winding beat from RJD2, using the track to show off a series of complex flows and slick lines. The video, directed by Dan Gotti is a well-done series of fast-edit performance clips, each cut keeping up with the frantic pace of RJ’s instrumental and Tage’s verses.

“Somewhere,” one of six songs on MHz Legacy produced by long-time in-house producer RJD2, is a song that Copywrite describes as “unpredictable and fun,” a vibe that he credits to RJ’s beat. “This is a funky and real different beat from RJ,” says Copywrite.

The video, directed by Dan Gotti, and premiered today by Okayplayer, follows in that same vibe, as the camera catches Copywrite and Tage spending time with their girls. “‘Somewhere’ is about taking that special lady somewhere,” says Copywrite, and Tage agrees, taking the concept a step further. “It’s about going somewhere and enjoying it,” says Tage, “whether it’s physically going somewhere, or mentally.”

Blueprint speaks with HipHopSite.Com’s DJ Pizzo, about his new album, Deleted Scenes. He also reveals plans for 2013, which include a new collaborative album with RJD2 as Soul Position, as well as his next solo album and new material from his Greenhouse Effect crew.

The history of Columbus, Ohio’s MHz is perhaps one of the most intriguing stories in underground hip-hop lore. They first stepped on the scene in 1998, via a handful of vinyl only singles on Bobbito’s legendary Fondle ‘Em Records imprint. While these 12-inches hardly made them a household name, they did catch the ears of a few important figures of the time – Definitive Jux’s El-P and Eastern Conference’s DJ Mighty Mi. Friendly competition between the two pioneering indie hip-hop imprints would see the signing of solo deals for both RJD2 and Camu Tao on Jux, while Copywrite would sign with E.C. Both RJD2 and Copywrite would deliver debut solo LP’s in 2002 – both critically acclaimed – with other MHz members Jakki, and Tage Proto waiting in the wings. Camu teamed with both Cage and Metro for a pair of collaborative projects, Nighthawks and S.A. Smash, respectively; and the fusion of MHz, with many of the other Def Jux and E.C. artists, would form an ultimate supergroup called The Weathermen, who released one mixtape before disappearing forever.

During a time where crew albums were all the rage (here’s looking at you, Terror Squad) and with all of these projects happening concurrently, it seemed like the reuniting of the MHz crew was inevitable. The Ohio collective had already produced each RJD2, Copywrite, and Camu Tao, so getting everyone back together for a crew-defining LP seemed like a no-brainer. Except it never happened. Rumors of in-fighting, falling-outs, and on-again-off-again friendships between various members of the crew always seemed to keep the reunion from happening. And then something happened in 2008 that sealed MHz’s fate for good: the early death of Camu Tao.

It’s 2012, and both Def Jux and Eastern Conference Records are defunct. RJD2 has moved beyond standard hip-hop production, Copywrite has struggled with broken relationships and backlash from fair-weather fans, while Camu rests in peace after succumbing to cancer. The idea of an MHz album at this point almost seems like a bad idea… but somehow they have pulled it off.

Copywrite leads the pack on MHz Legacy, while Tage has finally moved beyond “Proto” type status, and moved into a “Future” version of himself, finally ready to stand front-and-center with his more established peers. The MHz Legacy album largely revolves around these two emcees – quite easily the best of the camp – with minor contributions from Jakki and a posthumous Camu. The album begins with “Accidentally On Purpose”, which sums up the project in one line: “This is the album that wasn’t even supposed to happen / even after mastering, we couldn’t believe the rappin’ / a story about moving out the house / from a crew with a name nobody knew how to pronounce”. (It’s “megahertz”, in case you were wondering).

The chemistry between the crew on MHz Legacy doesn’t sound forced, even with Cam’s verses delivered from beyond the grave, such as on “Spaceship”, which finds Copy and Camu sharing rhymes, alongside guest Danny Brown, who seems like he would have been a natural collaborator with Cam. There are plenty of great posse cuts in the classic E.C. / Def Jux fashion, such as a pair of RJD2 produced heaters, “Hindsight” and “Four Player Mode”, or later on “Columbus Diss Patch”, each with a sound that suggests the Fat Beats 12″ era never died out. On the solo tip, Tage gets his time to shine on the RJD2 produced “Outta Room”, while Copywrite gets his on “Obituaries”. There are a number of notable guest collabos as well, such as “Yellow & Blue”, which features guest verses from Blu over a ridiculous track by Surock, or the drug-addled “Addicitionary”, where each Copywrite, Ill Bill, and Slaine recount their personal narcotic experiences. The album takes a more serious turn on tracks like “Mass Temple” and “Y’all Don’t Know”, both of which suggest that these cats are more than just witty punchlines, and also proves they aren’t always dependent on RJD2 for the album’s more meaty, musical moments.

While some of the fat could have been trimmed from the album’s 17 tracks, MHZ Legacy is a very solid, surprising effort, one that we thought would never happen. Posthumous albums never seem to work, and crew albums even less so. But in a rare occurrence, Copywrite, RJD2, and Tage have pooled their efforts into pulling this thing together, and it is nothing short of spectacular. Despite the indie hip-hop movement having it’s best days behind it, and the idea of this album being way past expiration, the end result shows that the Columbus crew has prevailed, and the MHz Legacy will live on.

This is an thinly veiled ad for T-Mobile – that we’re not getting paid for – but there isn’t enough RJD2 content in the world. So have at it.