Pitchfork: Rjd2 and Blueprint Return as Soul Position

Rjd2 and Blueprint Return as Soul Position

Ohio undie-rap kingpins Rjd2 and Blueprint, together known as Soul Position, are set to release Things Go Better with RJ and Al, the follow-up to their 2003 album 8,000,000 Stories. It's due out April 4 on Rhymesayers. The 12" single for "Hand-Me-Downs", backed by ""Blame It on the Jager", was released today.

According to the Rhymesayers website, Things Go Better features Blueprint addressing "a greater variety of subject matter than ever, as he speaks on reshaping the Black identity in hip-hop and, on the lighter side, warns people not to waste his precious cell phone minutes," and Rjd2 continuing to do his thing with "funky" samples.

However it sounds, the new effort arrives at a time when Rj's beats are in high demand by both rappers and video games - witness his recent collaboration with Aceyalone, Magnificent City, his contributions to Cage's latest LP, and his work on the score for Playstation's Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure.

Things go better with tracklists:

01 The Beginning
02 No Gimmicks
03 Hand-Me-Downs
04 The Extra Mile
05 Blame It on the Jager
06 I Need My Minutes
07 Keep It Hot for Daddy
08 I'm Free
09 Keys
10 The Cool Thing to Do
11 Priceless
12 Drugs, Sex, Alcohol, Rock-n-Roll
13 Things Go Better

There are those who think that Rj's beats sound better without MCs spitting on top of them, but if the Def Jux house producer started worrying about things like that, we might never have another song like Viktor Vaughan's "Saliva". To prove all you snotty haters wrong, Soul Position will be heading out on a long-ass tour across the country this April. It's uncreatively titled the "Things Go Better" tour, and all shows will be opened by Michigan rapper One Be Lo.

Dates:

04-12 Ottawa, Ontario - Babylon Nightclub
04-13 Toronto, Ontario - Legendary Horseshoe Tavern
04-14 Columbus, OH - Little Brothers
04-15 Chicago, IL - The Abbey Pub
04-16 Milwaukee, WI - Onopa Brewing Co.
04-18 Madison, WI - The Annex
04-19 Minneapolis, MN - Fifth Element (instore)
04-19 Minneapolis, MN - Triple Rock Social Club
04-20 Des Moines, IA - Vaudeville Mews
04-21 St. Louis, MO - Blueberry Hill
04-22 Cleveland Heights, OH - Grog Shop
04-23 Buffalo, NY - Soundlab
05-03 Seattle, WA - Chop Suey
05-04 Portland, OR - Berbati's Pan
05-05 Eugene, OR - WOW Hall
05-06 San Francisco, CA - The Independent
05-08 Los Angeles, CA - The Echo
05-09 San Diego, CA - Casbah
05-10 Tempe, AZ - The Clubhouse
05-12 Denton, TX - Hailey's
05-13 Austin, TX - Emo's
05-14 Houston, TX - Walters on Washington
05-15 Baton Rouge, LA - Spanish Moon
05-24 Northampton, MA - Pearl Street Nightclub
05-25 Cambridge, MA - Middle East
05-26 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
05-27 Brooklyn, NY - South Paw
05-28 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church
05-29 Charlottesville, VA - Satellite Ballroom
05-30 Asheville, NC - Orange Peel
05-31 Atlanta, GA - Drunken Unicorn (MJQ Concourse)
06-01 Mt. Pleasant, SC - Village Tavern
06-02 Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506
06-03 Baltimore, MD - Sonar

Blueprint will get his vocal cords in shape with a few pre-tour warm-up shows, hitting exotic locales like Morgantown, West Virginia and Johnson City, Tennessee starting next week.

Blueprint solo:

04-05 Carbondale, IL - Hangar 9 *
04-06 Morgantown, WV - 123 Pleasant Street *
04-07 Louisville, KY - Wicks *
04-08 Johnson City, TN - The Hideaway *
04-10 Dayton, OH - Elbo's *

* with Greenhouse Effect, DJ Bombay

While Blueprint's busy getting his Rust Belt on, Rjd2 will be spinning for the upper crust in New York City. In fact, he'll appear at the Guggenheim Museum on the very same night that Bluprint's holding it down in Louisville. But Rj's head shouldn't get too big; his only other scheduled solo performances will take place this summer at a 24-hour rave in central Ohio and on a hippie boat cruise around Manhattan.

Rjd2 solo:

04-07 New York, NY - Guggenheim Museum *
07-02 McArthur, OH - Freedom Festival
07-06 New York, NY - Rocks Off Concert Cruise

* with Beans