Declaime

California-based rapper and singer/songwriter Dudley Perkins moves fluidly between abstract hip-hop and funky, spiritual neo-soul while recording both under his birth name and as Declaime, and he frequently joins forces with spouse Georgia Anne Muldrow in the duo G&D. Early visibility arrived via guest spots on 1990s projects from tha Alkaholiks and Lootpack, after which he formed a deep partnership with producer Madlib that yielded his first release, the 1999 EP Illmindmuzik. Later Declaime full-lengths paired him with Oh No for 2004’s Conversations with Dudley and with J. Rawls for 2005’s It’s the Dank & Jammy Show, while Perkins and Muldrow jointly founded the label SomeOthaShip Connect; Declaime outings such as 2010’s Fonk and 2017’s Young Spirit moved closer to the psychedelic funk already associated with his solo work. Archival projects including 2021’s In the Beginning, Vol. 1 revisited his earliest recordings, and the same year saw the studio album The Last Stand.

Originally tied to the Likwit Crew, Perkins made his recorded debut on tha Alkaholiks’ second album Coast II Coast and appeared on Lootpack’s Soundpieces prior to issuing his own material. The Madlib-produced Declaime EP Illmindmuzik arrived on Goodvibe in 1999, followed in 2001 by the full-length Andsoitissaid, again helmed by Madlib and boasting guest verses from West Coast MCs Rasco and Lootpack. That same year he began issuing more overtly soul-oriented music under his given name alongside continued hip-hop output as Declaime. Conversations with Dudley, which united his dual artistic personas, surfaced on Up Above Records in 2004, and the J. Rawls collaboration It’s the Dank & Jammy Show reached stores in 2005, initially available only in Japan.

In subsequent years most Perkins material, including joint efforts with partner Georgia Anne Muldrow, appeared under his legal name, although the Declaime single “Children of the Sun” featuring Muldrow’s vocals emerged on the French Apollo Jazz Production imprint in 2007. Octave, a Japanese label, released the full-length Astormsacomin in 2008. Additional 2009 releases included the Flying Lotus collaboration EP Whole Wide World, the Madlib-produced single “State of Emergency,” and the album Muzikillmind. Mello Music Group put out the 2010 Muldrow and Declaime project SomeOthaShip, after which the pair established SomeOthaShip Connect, the label that issued Declaime’s G-funk-inflected Fonk produced by Quazadelic; the CD/DVD Self Study followed in 2011.

After the 2013 Dudley Perkins album Dr. Stokley on Mello Music Group and the Muldrow/Perkins release Lighthouse on SomeOthaShip, Perkins revived the Declaime moniker for 2015’s Southside Story. Young Spirit arrived in 2017 with contributions from Blu, Saul Williams, Aloe Blacc, and Muldrow. The 2018 EP Welcome to My Light, recorded with Jazzylla, appeared on the French label NoForm: Production. Declaime digitally issued the 24-track, extremely lo-fi Illminded in 2020, drawing on early Madlib sessions preserved on a cassette missing since 1995. A cleaner, shorter selection from the same period, In the Beginning, Vol. 1, surfaced in 2021, as did the double-LP The Last Stand, widely rumored to be Declaime’s final album and featuring production and guest spots from Casual, Braxton Cook, and LaToiya Williams.