"We On 1", the title track to DJ Rashad's most recent EP, is the first time his voice has been heard on record since his passing last month. His vocals are chopped up and slurred, juxtaposing screw's lean-fueled stupor with the frantic, slippery agility of footwork: "Robitussin, pink surrrp/ Robitussin, pink surrrp/ Promethazine promethazine (we on one)". The utterances hold a strange weight now, especially following the speculation that the juke and footwork icon might have died of a drug overdose following misleading police reports (the drug paraphernalia those reports extraneously mentioned was said to be marijuana-related); regardless, the attempts to gain closure and clear the air over Rashad's death have cast a pall over the concurrent release of this new EP.
In an alternate universe, We On 1 provides four tracks' worth of proof that Rashad's 2013 breakthrough Double Cup was just the beginning of his next leap forward, rather than an inadvertent eulogy or an object of what-could-have-been speculation. As it stands, it's a concentrated jolt of wide-ranging takes on an already down-for-whatever sound, with Rashad finding countless vantage points to throw odd asides and funny mutations into the 160-BPM barrage of digital percussion. The beats are expectedly heavy-hitting and distinct even at their densest, rumbling with crisp, open-space fidelity that finds nuance in subwoofer-stressing bass and generations-old 808 claps.
"We On 1" is a trunk-rattler that groans under its own weight and lets its beats push through the drone, sawn-off versions of booming-system throbs impenetrable as solid steel but buckling and waving like gelatin. When that heavy growl is peppered with Rashad's characteristic stagger-rhythm snares, the bass rumble starts shaping more distinctly into a bassline, as one-note and insistent as the style demands but unified into something even bigger than its already hulking frame. Rashad pulled off a smart trick by taking this frenetic blueprint and using its supercharged tempo to swing between trebly, claustrophobic AK-47 percussion and the wide-open, two-ton glide of that low-end assault. (Get a load of the "Aja" drop, too.)
Two other tracks feature Rashad's longtime friend and frequent co-producer DJ Spinn. The beat of the '80s ghettohouse nod "Come on Girl" metamorphizes from insistently one-two bass jabs to fast-clacking snare rolls to flat-out drum'n'bass breaks to breath-snatching fusions of all three. It's so relentless that even the looped shout of "pop that pussy!" nearly gets lost in the flood. The woozy sing-song-laced "Do It Again" (also featuring Teklife member and "Way I Feel"/"Drums Please" collaborator DJ Manny) initially comes across as light, a gently blissed-out female vocal providing the gradually-forming repetition of the titular hook, washed in lawn-sprinkler hi-hats and boosted by warm, weighty bass hits. But its smooth build into breakneck snare-bass buildups and breakdowns, laced with Southern-tinged molly-rap signifiers and "Fuck me" whispers, turns the track into a bristling juxtaposition of anticipatory calm and fevered motion.
Considering that Rashad's sound finds the intersection of emotional swells, nostalgic happiness, and shivering catharsis, EP closer "Somethin 'Bout the Things U Do" (featuring veteran ghetto house/juke innovator Gant-Man) is We On 1's inarguable standout. A footwork reassembly of Chaka Khan's instantly recognizable "I Feel for You", those iconic David Frank synthesizer hits and Stevie Wonder harmonica riffs are tweaked into a frantic fast-forward caricature that subsequently stretches, loops, and hammers home every last truncated syllable out of Khan's voice into a monomaniacal burst of joyous abandon that ricochets off the retrofitted footwork rhythms.
We may not be finished talking about DJ Rashad's legacy yet. Hopefully, there'll be far more to come, both from his own vaults and from the Teklife collective. As long as there are artists out there who are willing and able to take his lead, to find a way to make ribcage-collapsing bass and deep soul work in tandem, to work all the angles of every kick and rattle to make that 160 BPM upend any efforts to straitjacket it, Rashad will be with us.
