Ghostwriter by RJD2

In this blog, I will be reviewing a song made by hip-hop DJ RJD2.  

I'd like to start off by saying that RJD2 is one of the most ridiculously talented artists of our time.  He is well-known for being one of the most incredibly gifted artists that samples random pieces of audio and skillfully manipulates that audio to fit into his pieces.  It's a bit of a shame that he's now retired from the genre of sample-based hip-hop and is now doing solely acoustic-oriented music.  But regardless, the guy is phenomenal at what he does.

"Ghostwriter" is arguably RJD2's most recognizable song.  It has everything you want in a hip-hop song (even if it is instrumental-based): It's got a fantastic beat, great instrumental parts, spooky but colorful vocals, and pristine mixing that makes the song sound crystal clear.  Here is the song itself:

It's also been used as the background music for several television shows and television ads (some you may not even expect).  For example:

So, as you can see, the song has been an incredibly popular song because so many elements of the song sound so vibrant and attractive.  Let's explore why:

The beginning of the song starts out with an acoustic guitar playing a very simple riff.  To give the sound a very vintage feel, RJD2 added in scratch sounds from a vinyl record playing to give it those subtle "sparks" that make the sound so interesting.

At around 0:06, a new sound seemingly sweeps into the sound of the song, possibly used by a low-pass filter being used on a high-frequency sound.  A muffled-trumpet part (it also sounds like a trumpet part that has been reversed) comes in, almost cacophonously, as it does not correlate with the melody whatsoever.  But it certainly adds to the spooky feel of the song.  Several of these quick sweeps are introduced back and forth until at 0:20, the background vocals come in at a crescendo and start the beginning of the song.

At this point, the percussion part starts: a simple bass, closed hi-hat and snare drum are played continuously at a very casual, relaxed 70-80 bpm.  At 0:31, the bass comes in to supplement the sound of the still-going acoustic guitar and adds a little more depth to the sound.

At 0:39, the bass drops out and RJD2 includes a weird collection of almost bird calls/children yelling but all at a somewhat inaudible level.  The guitar then fades out and echoes for a bit at around 0:45, which then transitions into the lead vocals that come in at around 0:48.  

After the lead vocals hum for a few seconds, there are three vocals that come in, with the last one being an old Sam Cooke sample.   The second time through, these vocals play through once more, but a harsh and "crunchy" electric guitar sample comes in.  Shortly after, a crescendo-ing sample of girls seemingly cooing leads into the next sample at around 1:23.  This cooing leads into a quick succession of trumpet samples beginning at 1:27 that lead into the CLIMAX of the song at 1:32.  

This part of the song has the following layers to its track: 

1) a bright trumpet part that takes the lead

2) a strong bass

3) the same drum, closed hi-hat, snare combo from before

4) background vocals

and

5) the gritty electric guitar from just earlier

Intermittently, RJD2 includes great muffled samples of another electric guitar that come in at random points.  

At around 2:14, the song slows down a bit as the trumpet part is slowly repeated as it decrescendos into the next vocally-dominated section of the song.  After several riffs, a quiet piano part comes in at 2:41 and quickly trails off, just to add enough subtlety to make the riff different, but not changing it completely.

At 2:46, the vocals transition into a violin-dominated section, with a trio of violins playing against the already-going percussion line from before.  This part ends at 3:04, with the sound of a synth bell, which then leads into an electric-guitar dominated part of the song.  

At 3:25, a strong bass line comes in against the electric-guitar and plays through until 3:50, where the lead vocals come in to replace the bass.  At 3:56, the vocals are interrupted by a man shouting "And I know!" almost in perfect rhythm with the rest of the song.  Similarly at 4:01, the sample of this man is used but he says "But I feel!".  

Everything in the song starts slowly dropping until the vocals are just left there by themselves.  But at 4:30, the vocals are then interrupted by a quick succession of trumpet samples that leads into the final climax of the song at 4:37.  This riff plays through until the very end...

As you can see, there are many many layers to RJD2's work.  His use of randomized vocal samples is perfectly suited for filling in the many gaps in the instrumental parts of his song.  But RJD2's ear for including many different instruments is what makes this song so fantastic.  The list of instruments is pretty extraordinary:

1) acoustic guitar

2) electric guitar

3) acousting piano

4) bass

5) drums

6) trumpet

7) trio of violins

8) synth bells

... and maybe more.

Ghostwriter manages to work on many different levels.  The dynamic shifts and the different instrumental changes throughout the song make it such that song never ceases to bring something interesting to the table.  Not to mention, the middle and end climaxes to the song alone are enough reasons to listen to the song.

All in all, a ridiculously well-crafted song.  Props to RJD2.

Al Green remixed

My newest music project was a pseudo hip-hop/electronica piece that involved various Al Green music samples and the workings of both Logic and Reason.

Here is the song itself:

To start off, I had been listening to Al Green's "The Very Best of Al Green" album as I was beginning to start my music project.  As I kept listening to the tracks, I realized that the background brass parts within the songs were incredibly vivid and more importantly applicable samples.  Specifically, the saxophone/trumpet descension in the song "Sha La La" after each line was very colorful.  You can hear the sample here at 0:35 and at 0:43:

I then heard the sample to the song "I'm Still In Love With You" and I thought the beginning trumpet riff would be a great way to start my piece (from the beginning to 0:05):

The way these samples were worked in:

In the very beginning of my track, I use the intro to "I'm Still In Love With You," but I slow down the tempo to 90 bpm on logic, adjust the cutoff frequency using the "AutoFilter" insert and gradually increase the gain using to create a "sweep" in the beginning.

The next segment begins with a simple guitar riff that alternates between C major and B minor back and forth and this riff keeps playing itself until it is interrupted by a vocoder.  The vocoder sample here was created by recording my talking voice into the computer microphone on a separate track, then using that specific audio track as the "input" for the vocoder.  The vocoder leads into a simple bass line, while the guitar sound opens up a bit more (the cutoff frequency increases a bit).

After this riff plays through, the track transitions into a pseudo-solo section as the sample of the trumpet/sax from "Sha La La" enters in with a piano.  Funny enough, the solo that begins here is actually the synthesizer-based theme song to Super Nintendo's "Donkey Kong Country 2."

Thereafter, the percussion part of the song enters in as I used the hip-hop kit from Reason's Redrum, using the Rewire slave mode capabilities.  After the percussion plays with some of the guitar riff a bit more, the song transitions as the vocoder plays once more then leads into a slowed-up version of the intro to Steely Dan's "Caves of Altamira".  The sample can be seen here from 0:09 - 0:12:

The sampled is played three times through, sped up, then the low-pass filter sweeps through once more.  As this is happening, the song crescendos to a climax and is met with strong percussion to lead into the finale of the song.

The original guitar riff plays once more through, then vocoder leads into a section where an acoustic piano accompanies the guitar riff.  For the final few riffs, the saxophone samples, and at the very end, the saxophone sample from Al Green's song is extended through to finish the song on an R&B type of feel.