MASHUP

No doubt, you’ve heard of DJ Danger Mouse’s “Grey Album”, which was one of the most controversial albums of early 2004. The “Grey Album” is a blend (Mashup) of The Beatles “White Album” and Jay Z’s “Black Album”. The album put DJ Danger Mouse on the map, and created a new space for creativity in Hip Hop. Most recently, the “Grey Video” has created its own buzz. You can get the Grey Album from here, and you can get the Grey Video from here.

After listening to the Grey Album, I thought Danger was a musical genius. He blended the albums perfectly, breathing new life into Jay Z’s mediocre Black Album.

Following in Danger’s footsteps, the Internet was inundated with mashups. None of course, lived up to the quality level of the Grey Album. None until the Kleptones released two excellent mashups that deviated from the two album blend paradigm.

The Kleptones first released “A Night at the Hip Opera”. The mashup gets its name from Queen’s album “A Night at the Opera”.  It includes music from various Queen albums. Some of the Hip Hop artist making appearances are Missy Elliot, Kelis, KRS-One, Old Dirty Bastard (Rest in peace Ason!), The Beastie Boys and De La Soul. The rock influence might be to overwhelming for many hip hoppers, but this mashup demonstrated a creativity level that equally compares to the Grey Album. You can download the album here.

Follow up on the success of their first mashup, the Kleptones released “Yoshimi Battles The Hip-Hop Robots”. This mashup includes artist such as Busta Rhymes, The Streets (Mike Skinner), Rakim, Chuck D and 50 Cents. Like its predecessor, it pushes the limit with creativity and the blending of Hip Hop. To download this album, you’ll need Bit Torrent. It is a free application that will allow you to download the album. Download Bit Torrent here. Download “Yoshimi Battles The Hip-Hop Robots” here.

All of these mashups deserve a listen.

Comments

[Hashim]

"...breathing new life into Jay Z’s mediocre Black Album."

I can't co-sign that homie

[Nigel Clarke]

My judgement on "The Black Album" could be biased. I'm from Queens. :-)

[con]

The Grey album is not really a mashup. Dangermouse sampled the White Album to make beats, he didn't just blend Jay's vocals over the original tracks. Granted, he used only the white album, and no outside samples, but still, he made beats from samples, so it can't be a mashup.

[Nigel Clarke]

Con,

I have to respectfully disagree. You have to look at the meaning of "Mashup" or "Mash-Up".

Mashup - musical genre which, in its purest form, consists of the combination (usually by digital means) of the music from one song with the acapella from another. Typically, the music and vocals belong to completely different genres.

[Coop]

Why does everyone call The Streets a group? It's one dude...

[Nigel Clarke]

Coop,

I stand corrected. I will make the adjustments in the article.

Mike Skinner = The Streets

Thanks, Nigel