Who knew that a 40-year-old white guy from Philadelphia could be so funky? RJD2 fans know full well, and now that he’s on his way back with a new LP, its clear that his age has not diminished his commitment to the funk one bit. Rolling out the forthcoming new project, titled The Fun Ones, is lead single “Pull Up On Love,” featuring frequent collaborator STS as well as soul music veteran Khari Mateen.
As with all of RJD2’s productions, the video and audio for “Pull Up On Love” adopt an approach free of distraction and ornamentation. This is a pure raw, rap cut. There’s little else to it, but what little there is coasts freely upon wily grooves and in-the-pocket beats.
The video is nothing more than an expertly cut concert film from when RJD2 and all the song’s collaborators performed “Pull Up On Love” live at the Ogden Theater in Denver. STS and Mateen are on stage with RJD2 in the background holding down the beat with turntables and various instruments.
Most recently, RJD2 called upon his alias The Insane Warrior for an LP called Tendrils in 2018, but the radical execution of elements oh so familiar to his music communicates a clear sense of joy to be back to his original artistic identity. He hasn’t officially donned the title since 2016’s album Dame Fortune.
RJD2 had this to say about the album:
“This tune started with some Zigaboo-inspired drums, a nice little sweeping guitar lick, and a bass line that left plenty of space for wherever Slim (a.k.a STS) was gonna take the track. I purposely left some room to fill out the track once the vocals were in place. So when Slim sent it back to me, and Khari had done his thing on it, it had such a great vibe to it that I didn’t want to drench the track in production tricks and overdubs. I wanted the vocal performances to shine, so I basically cleaned up the mix, did a few breakdowns, and left it as is.”
The Fun Ones is due out April 17. Watch the video for “Pull Up On Love” below.