The Grey Album Danger Mouse

[Beverly Zielonko]

Soyou get this amazing mix experiment, all these great old Beatles riffs chopped up tossed up chunked up in cruel and unusual (and very cool) ways, all colliding bizarrely with this semi-gangsta crap. The result is as depressing as it is amazing.

Since hearing the grey album I have realized that the frontiers of hip hop have not even been touched. I hope that the devilish powers that be can not silence the people for much longer..Soon it will be OVA

Interesting remix of Jay-Z's Black Album that was put together by someone called "DJ Dangermouse." I don't love Jay-Z, and I'm not a huge fan of the Beatles, but I'm listening to this underground release, a melding of the White Album and the Black Album, and finding it strangely...captivating.

This "release" (indy) created quite a stir when EMI tried to pull the plug on unauthorized use of Beatles samples. Jay-Z's camp responded by making an acapella mix of the Black Album available to any and all who would remix it! (when will the big companies learn? This is reminiscent of Biz Markie's sampling woes...). Anyway, although only 3000 copies were pressed by the DJ, it's all over the net (yesterday was Grey Tuesday, an event sponsored by the DJ whereby many fans hosted mp3's of the songs for download).

Since hip-hop has been sampling from all sources, the White Album is not really a surprise choice ... However, some of the tracks are so cleverly matched one cannot help but smile at the ingenuity. "Encore," "Dirt Off Your Shoulder," and "Moment of Clarity" are very well done. Even "What More Can I Say?," not one of HOVA's best, gets a facelift from "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."

On the other hand, some are quite predictable. "99 Problems" and "Helter Skelter" are such a natural match that it's surprising the result disappoints. "Change Clothes," itself a second-rate rewrite of the Neptunes' "Frontin'," doesn't improve much even with the aid from the Fab 4.

Even though backing tracks are taken from the Beatles ... looping and speed correction take away much charm from the originals. If you're more into the Beatles, you'll likely to be disappointed. If you're a fan of the God MC, this is an interesting effort worth seeking.

Granted, DJ Dangermouse--who the hell is DJ Dangermouse, by the way?!--added a new twist to the remix-the-whole-damned-record craze. All said, though, I'm sick and tired of it. There's something like seven or eight well-distributed remix records of this latest Jay-Z release: the Green Album, the Blue Album, the Brown Album, etc.

It all started with a kid named 9th Wonder who remixed Nas' God's Son in full a couple of years ago. It was called God's Stepson and recieved a lot of press within hip hop circles. It was a very bold move, one that was going to either propell him to stardom of get his ass kicked. As it happens, it was pretty good so he got some production gigs out of the deal. In fact, I believe he produced one of the tracks on (the legitimate version of) the Jay-Z Black Album. He was supposed to anyway.

The legitimate Black Album stinks, by the way. I sold it immediately. Can't believe he turned down beats from Dr. Dre and DJ Premier for the crap he ended up rhyming over. Not a particularly good way to bow out of the game in my opinion. What began as a ?uestlove co-production ended up not as the 'back to roots' hip hop record it was supposed to be. Rather, it's just another rap CD appropriate for dancefloors in exclusive nightclubs. Whatever man.....

Mr. Burke, you sure are a veteran groover ... Dr. Dre? DJ Premier? What year is this anyway? I don't think The Black Album's that bad ... I think it's an improvement over the overly-long and boring Blueprint2 and the largely-pointless version 2.1. It's the rhyme that counts with Be's man, anyway.

The Brown Album is very good. I believe they have clips of it that you can listen to on HipHopSite.com but you'll have to hunt them down yourself because they don't adjust the URL when you go to different pages within their site. So I couldn't copy you a direct link.

As for my "veteran groover" status..... Yeah, I'm a *boom-boom-bap* kind of guy. Erick Sermon, Pete Rock, Large Professor, Primo, etc. And in my world there's nothing better than a jam about why you're the baddest motherf*cker ever to hold a mic. I still say Rakim was the best of all time. Unstopable. I did like the first Blueprint and the Unplugged records by Jigga, though. He's definately a gifted lyricist and has an amazingly nonchalant flow; as if to say "alright, I guess I'll make some shit up for you." And that kind of confident swagger works if the lyrics are good. Bottom line: Jigga not only has good lyrics but knowns when to use certain vowel and consonant sounds. The overall effect is very percussive. Others I can think of who do (or in some cases did) this well are Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, Nas, Inspectah Deck, Redman, E-Double, Q-Tip, Grand Puba, Chuck D, Kool G Rap, Edo. G and.....well......Rakim.

Yes and no. I see your point--seriously I do--but a dope rhyme over a weak beat, at the end of the day, is still weak. On the other hand, I can think of several releases that are considered underground classics regardless of the fact that the MCs are lame simply because the beats are so dope: Group Home, INI, All City, Groove B Chill, etc. I would almost put the latter Gang Starr in this category as well. Everybody's sick of Guru's shit by this point but heads still buy those records based on Primo alone.

The Grey Video is VERY clever! Liked it a lot. Went a little over the top when they had John break-dancing, but the integration of the "Hard Day's Night" footage and the new footage was nearly flawless. Ringo as DJ was pretty hilarious too!

Me? I downloaded all the MP3's well over a year ago, but never got around to burning them to a CD (which is the only way I seem to listen to stuff). I think I still have them on my harddrive at home somewhere. I should take a look tonight.

Well, I dl'ed it, listened to it a couple of times, then dropped it. I do like mash-ups, but this was just too rap-heavy for my taste. There was a brilliant remix/mash-up of Green Day's American Idiot called American Edit, and I listen to that about once a month. I like it a lot more, as it samples rock and pop and smashes it together with the Green Day tracks.

The only mashup I've heard was that Queen/50 Cent thing that was available online briefly. It was fun, more because I was hearing music that I was familiar with in a different light. But I'm not sure it holds up over the long run to repeated listening, for me anyway. I haven't been inspired to play it in a long time. Heck, I don't play Queen very often anymore either.

I'm wondering if this Beatles mashup thing is something that will get alot of "curiousity" sales, but won't stand up to repeated listening over the long term. If that happens, it may end up being a used cd store staple before too long. Of course I'd be happy to be wrong and have this turn out to be a great cd...

I've been listening to it lately, particularly because of my interest in Danger Mouse (I have his collaboration with Cee-Lo as Gnarls Barkley, the "Danger Doom" album with MF Doom, his Gorillaz album, and another collaboration he did called "Ghetto Pop Life" with Jeminii), but also because I've been listening to Jay-Z's "The Black Album" in anticipation of his new one (due out today).

I thought "The Grey Album" was pretty cool the first time I heard it, and if anything my repect for Danger Mouse and his achievement has only grown, especially when I learned that all of the beats on the album were constructed using ONLY Ringo's drum beats and Paul's basslines. Imagine how long that must have taken! I always assumed that DM had used canned beats or even lifted the beats straight from "The Black Album." I read an interview with DM in which he condemns all of those people who released their own "Black Album" mash-ups in his wake. He notes that most of them just threw the thing together in a couple of days, but that "The Grey Album" took weeks of painstakingly counting beats, scouring "The White Album" for material that would fit both the tempo and the mood of the Jay-Z songs, and sampling EVERY TIME Ringo's drum-stick hit the skin so he could later reassemble it into the beats he would use on the album. He said that he actually thought about giving up after about four songs and considered just releasing an EP. Instead, he pushed on and created twelve songs that stand up to the original Jay-Z album in every respect (and even surpass it in some ways, especially since each track on "The Black Album" was done by a different producer).

The stand-out tracks, for me, on "The Grey Album" are "99 Problems" (orginally produced by Rick Rubin) in which DM outstrips the original version by sampling "Helter Skelter" for a BLISTERING track; "Encore" (which was used in "The Grey Video") which samples "Glass Onion" and "Savoy Truffle"; "Dirt Off Your Shoulder" which completely reconstructs "Julia"; "Moment of Clarity" which uses "Happiness Is A Warm Gun" to incredible effect (it's all but unrecognizable); "Interlude" which uses "Revolution 9" to create an amazing sound collage; and "December 4th," which combines "Mother Nature's Son" with a song that features Jay-Z mother's voice.

Speaking of Jay-Z, I did end up getting "Kingdom Come" yesterday. Like the Beatles' "LOVE," this is getting some luke-warm reviews and (as with "LOVE") I think that it comes from inflated expectations (Jay-Z's comeback album, and all that). I found "Kingdom Come" to be a highly enjoyable listen. It's concise (14 tracks, no "interludes" or skits that often plague hip-hop records), it highlights Jay-Z's skills as an MC and has wonderful production (I especially enjoyed the elements of classic soul and even psychedelia). The album sounds great. Is it as good as "The Blueprint?" Of course not. That was a high water mark in Jay-Z's career, and in Hip-Hop in general. Is it as good as "The Black Album?" No, but it comes pretty close. Yes, Jay-Z's favorite topic is still Jay-Z, but that's always been the case. I think this is a solid addition to his canon, even if it isn't the groundbreaking album people were anticipating.

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