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Jay-Z And The Beatles, Together

So have you all heard about this? A guy named DJ Dangermouse took Jay-Z's The Black Album and mixed it with The Beatles' The Beatles (AKA The White Album) to create The Grey Album (clever, eh?).

While the album has received limited distribution, EMI has rightfully served DJ Dangermouse with a cease-and-desist, as he's illegally using the Beatles catalogue.

I downloaded the album last night. I gotta say, it's very interesting. For me, it makes listening to Jay-Z relatively tolerable. :)

Anybody else heard it?

Here's some information from an MTV Article:

Quote:

Of all the remixes, the most talked about lately and one of the most interesting in concept is The Grey Album, from Los Angeles producer Danger Mouse. Like most good ideas, it's deceptively simple: take Jay-Z's The Black Album and layer its vocals over one of rock's most ambitious musical masterpieces, the Beatles' The White Album.

Over two and a half weeks in December, Danger Mouse engineered new beats culled from the sounds of The White Album, cribbing drum hits, plundering piano loops and stealing guitar riffs before meshing them into recognizable but recontextualized riffs. "For me, it was an obvious thing to do," Danger Mouse said. "I'm a big Jay-Z fan. Always have been. Same thing with the Beatles. ... And once I got the idea to do this, I had to do it before anyone else."

What makes The Grey Album so ambitious is how Danger Mouse engineered the beats to fit the personalities of the original songs. On The Black Album's "What More Can I Say," Jay-Z reflects on his success, seemingly already nostalgic about his top-of-the-hill status on what is ostensibly his retirement album. On The Grey Album, Danger Mouse renders the same sentiment by flipping the shuffling drums and mournful piano of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."

The Rick Rubin-produced "99 Problems" framed Jay-Z's boastful bravado with beats that resurrected rap's early homage to rock breaks. The Grey Album's version does the same thing, using the sneering guitars of "Helter Skelter."

"You can throw an a cappella over the beat and as long as they're the same [time], it'll somewhat match. But it doesn't mean it'll feel natural," Danger Mouse explained. "I didn't want it to sound that kind of way. I wanted to make sure I had the feelings of the song."

What The Grey Album also has seemed to do is open up Jay-Z to rock fans in a way that his street-reared, club-ready anthems have not. And it may do the same for rap fans who didn't know they liked the Beatles.

"I love the Beatles, but nobody knows that there's breaks in there," said Chad Hugo of the Neptunes, who produced two songs on The Black Album. After hearing The Grey Album for the first time, he nodded in approval. "This is dirty," he said.

Yeah, it's actually pretty impressive.

Here's the only workable link for the downloads of the mp3s (192 kps) that I know of:

http://www.illegal-art.org/audio/grey.html

I wasn't too sure if this was in violation of any TFP rules since you can't purchase the cd anymore, but if so, Mods feel free to remove my post.

Very interesting to hear nice link(s)

Thanks for the link Killer Yoda. I just listened to all the songs. I'm still undecided as to what I think of it. I'm leaning towards not interested, however, it's kind of a cool concept. It might have to grow on me.

I downloaded the songs, but for some reason XMMS (my mp3 player) locks up when trying to load them. mpg123 has problems too. I'm going to keep trying.

Thanks for the link.

Ya i have dled some of the songs from the Grey album its pretty good, id advice more people to get it.

Kick ass, that website is awesome.

honestly, i think emi is overreacting. and if you like danger mouse's stuff based on the grey album remixes, check out ghetto pop life, which he did with jemini the gifted one. good stuff, good stuff.

i liked this a lot... was about to post about it but seems you've beat me to it, actually. :D

I read about this in Rolling Stones. It sounds really interesting, so I'll need to check it out sometime soon.

first impression is that while i'm really impressed with dangermouse's abilities here, the beats are still kinda dull. gets repetitive quick. but what more can i say is cool, as is encore. has anyone heard any of the other countless remix albums?

white alubulm (kno of cunninlynguists), brown album (kev brown), back to black (9th wonder), and probably a lot more. i'm really interested in the white album, kno's stuff is the best.

ive hear 3 versions of the jay-z's black album still nothing compares to the orginal

this is funny i just downloaded the grey album thinking it was some new Jay-Z album. I heard it and was like what is this (confused but kinda cool)? It's funny because I just deleted all the tracks this morning, and now I see this post explaining it all. Wish I would have listened to it all.:confused:

very interesting...the black album blew ass in my opinion, but this makes it kinda rock...not that much...but interesting. Seriously though I wouldn't want to leave "the game" with this piece of garbage boring album where all he does is talk about how he's the best. What ever happened to humility

Wow, thanks for the link !!

I'm downloading now, I'll post my thoughts when I get to hear it :)

hmm sounds kinda dirty, not stuff i listen to usually
December 4th is good tho.

You know, it just doesn't work.

I mean, so many tracks are "almost" there, but don't quite sound finished, they lack polish.

I do like rap, but to hear John Lennon get chopped up is just odd.

I'm glad I had the opportunity to listen to it though :)

So.....today is Grey Tuesday!

Link: Grey Tuesday

Quote:

Tuesday, February 24 will be a day of coordinated civil disobedience: websites will post Danger Mouse's Grey Album on their site for 24 hours in protest of EMI's attempts to censor this work.

Fascinating!

The website has tons of links to download The Grey Album if you haven't already.

Well, he has stated that his reasons for making the album was for family and friends, as sort of an art project. But then he went and started selling copies of the cd.

I heard it during class and think it's awesome. I definetly like this version of "99 problems."

<a href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040225/ap_en_mu/music_the_grey_album_4">Yahoo news</a> has an article about it now. While I don't agree with Dash regarding Jay Z as a legend, I do respect him for the way he's handling the situation.

It's pretty cool stuff. I enjoyed it.

It's novelty wore off pretty fast for me. Cool idea, poor execution in my option.

god DAMN!!! I downloaded this tonight, and it is just f*cking amazing! Combining some quality Jay Z lyrics (trust me, they actually redeem him for Big Pimpin') with the classic sound of the Beatles, and absolutely brilliantly remixing done by DJ Dangermouse. The mixing is flawless: at one point in the song "My 1st Song" he mixes Jay Z into 2 beatles songs at once. And on top of just the technical skills involved, it just sounds damn cool; not quite Jay Z or Beatles, but something of its own. The creativity of this album is stunning.

If you like hip hop and or the Beatles, or just want to hear something new, get this music!!!!

its better than the black album
worse than the white album

Some of the dopest shit I've heard. This album is amazing.

Quote:

Originally posted by Esoteric
Some of the dopest shit I've heard. This album is amazing.

Agreed. The beats that Dangermouse laid down are absolutely sick, and in many cases are vastly superior to the originals. Someone needs to sign this guy to an in-house production studio yesterday.

There's another one of these, the Double Black album; Jay-Z and Metallica.

Both the Double Black Album and the Grey Album are also available for bittorrent download here:
Banned Music

I'm more fond of the third selection on that site, the Illegal Art Compilation. Be sure to read the liner notes to understand it.