RJD2—you know, the guy who did the Mad Men song—is back today with a new single featuring British pop-soul vocalist Jamie Lidell—you know, the guy on that Mura Masa song—called “Through It All.” The instrumental hip-hop figure (whose prolific career extends far beyond prominent placement in a hit series, including a slew of releases on iconic indie rap labels Def Jux and Rhymesayers, in addition to collaborations with MF DOOM and Mos Def) is releasing the track as a teaser for his newly announced album Visions Out of Limelight, his first full-length since 2020 which will arrive June 14 via his own label RJ’s Electrical Connections, and which was inspired by vintage TV theme songs.
Prominently featured on the new track alongside RJD2’s familiarly percussion-heavy beat and the sensual croon of Lidell (himself a prolific creator, releasing seven full-lengths since 2000 that chart his growth from IDM to synth-funk) is a sound that calls back to the era when both artists were getting their starts in music. “The seed that germinated ‘Through It All’ originally fell from the tree of infinite brilliance that is Timbaland,” RJD2 explains. “I was listening to some classic Aaliyah and taking in how he used amorphous mouth sounds as a textural element. The question posed itself in my head: ‘What if you did something with your own mouth sound that was non-human, rhythmically?’”
Meanwhile, the song’s music video—which was created by the artist and his preteen son, who shot and edited it—helps break down the usage of those mouth sounds and other elements of the instrumental, as footage of Lidell singing shares the screen with RJD2 working in the studio, drumming in a soccer field, and practicing the unignorable sound that runs throughout the song. “The video starts with an element that was never in the song: a raw performance of the ‘mouth water drop sound.’ It felt right to use the video as an opportunity to tell the story of the elements of the song, as visually as I could. I had never taken a straight ahead tack at portraying the instrumentation of a song before, so this was a great opportunity to do so.”
Check it out below.
