Ranked #189 in the Soul Strut 200

At the time DJ Shadow's 1996 album Endtroducing..... was a critically acclaimed work of art wowing electronic musicians of the day on how one could dig deeper for samples and make them work in an instrumental environment.  By the time 2002's Private Press rolled around, Shadow's popularity had soared inspiring a whole new wave of sampling hip hop instrumentalists armed with a crate full of weird easy listening and rare soul 45s.  RJD2 was one of them and arguably the most successful at carrying the torch with 2002's Deadringer.  The Soul Strut forums at the time were abuzz with this release as it was basically DJ Shadow meets the indie hip hop community (especially on the track "June").  There's no doubt that the Shadow albums and this release had an impact on some of the independent instrumental hip hop releases that were created by Soul Strut alumni like A-Ko, Rehash, Memphix, etc in the early to mid 00's.  With that said, Deadringer is a stew of funk 45 breaks, time stretched soul vocals, and oddball dollar bin finds chopped up creatively in a MPC.  Although some of that stuff can sound dated today, this album stands the test of time and is one of the best of its genre.

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