Philadelphia producer RJD2 has returned with a hip-shaking new song, “Pull Up on Love,” the lead single from his upcoming album, The Fun Ones, out April 17th.
The cut boasts the irresistible groove of a dusted-off soul 45 with its shuffling drums, fat bass line and prickly guitar, although an assortment of soft synths lend the track a distinctly modern edge. “Pull Up on Love” features RJD2’s past collaborators STS, Khari Mateen and Jordan Brown, who share vocal duties, and the song arrives with a video in which the four artists perform the song at the Ogden Theatre in Denver.
“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,” RJD2 said in a statement. “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 marks RJD2’s first album since 2016’s Dame Fortune, although in 2018 he released Tendrils under his other moniker, the Insane Warrior. Per a statement, The Fun Ones “draws largely from the basic DNA of hip-hop and funk music, with heavy bass, plenty of thump, and slick chord changes.”
The LP boasts guest appearances from Homeboy Sandman and Aceyalone, while it will also features snippets of conversations RJD2 recorded with his contemporaries like Phonte Coleman, J-Zone, Kid Koala, Mr. Lif and Son Little.
RJD2 will embark on a short tour in support of The Fun Ones this spring. The trek kicks off March 20th in Seattle and wraps April 26th in Cincinnati, although he’ll return for a May 22nd show in Brooklyn and a May 23rd set at the Boston Calling Music Festival.