RJD2

A producer whose skill and fluency with a number of genres makes him impressively difficult to pin down, RJD2's body of work makes a strong case for ignoring stylistic conventions. Even his acclaimed 2002 debut album Dead Ringer reflected his fondness for cinematic atmosphere and forays into jazz as much as his strong ties to the underground hip-hop scene. From there, he took one unexpected turn after another, folding '70s pop and rock influences into 2004's Since We Last Spoke, going sample-free on the alt-pop musings of 2007's The Third Hand, and adding his own live drumming to 2010's The Colossus. Along the way, he became an in-demand producer and remixer for clients -- Massive Attack, El-P, Elbow, and Polyphonic Spree -- that were nearly as varied as his own music. In the 2010s and beyond, he found inspiration by returning to the R&B and funk that were his early musical loves. The neo-soul leanings of 2013's More Is Than Isn't and the more vintage shadings of 2020's The Fun Ones and 2024's Visions Out of Limelight made for a slightly more cohesive, but still eclectic approach from an artist who's still best defined on his own terms.