Shades Of Jay

Grey areas are fun. How I should even spell the colour is a "gray" area itself. Four of the six artists involved in this merry tale are pohms, so I'm gonna go with the first one. (This is all gonna be a bit muso so if you have as big an aversion to art criticism as I do to sports commentary, this may not be the article for you. Even with the free shit at the end.)

Last year, Jay-Z released an a cappella version of The Black Album for remixers and fools who are easily parted from their money and will buy anything he touches. At that time, I knew squat about popular rap music and a mash-up was something that happened on the motorway. But that all changed thanks to le internet. Someone called DJ Dangermouse mixed this Black Album with The Beatles' White Album and the resulting Grey Album was hailed by many in the music press as Album Of The Year.

Reasons to like it: it's the Fab Four's best album, in places; good rap is good, bad rap is fucking awful, and Mr. Z knows his stuff; and the juxtaposition of his aggressive lyrics and their music (every chord and drum snare is lifted directly from The Beatles) is mind-blowing. 99 Problems was an arrogant Ice-T tune to begin with and it's more so with Jay-Z toasting and the blisters-on-my-fingers Helter Skelter backing up the lyrics. The staccato piano part from While My Guitar Gently Weeps under "there's never been a nigga this good for this long" on December 4th is better than sex (unless I'm doing it wrong). It does run out of steam towards the end, but most of the tunes here are fab and several are golden.



Oh, but it's illegal. How the hell can art be illegal? Creativity and cash were unlikely bedfellows when the music industry started and they don't appear to have reached a state of harmony or comprimise yet. If I sing to my lady, I don't expect to get billed for it (except by her, to compensate for the trauma). The fact that DJ Dangermouse knew he was using samples that would never get cleared because they fit and that he's pissed off people who are richer than God is just another reason to like it, in my humblest of humble opinions. No-one's trying to make money off the record. It's just out there, existing; popular only because it makes people happy, not because it's cheap or a corporation told us that we need this music to complete our lives. Think how many beautiful Nina Simone recordings wouldn't exist if jazz artists in those days weren't free to sing each others' songs.

There are several other curious Black Album remix projects. The Brown Album is a mix by Kevin Brown featuring the soul/jazz music of Kevin Brown, whoever Kevin Brown is! The Black & Blue Album sounds like a funny idea but the mix is atrocious and the timing is horrible. A self-confessed indie music fan and non-D.J. calling himself Jay-Zeezer mashed it up with The Blue Album by Weezer. The Double Black Album is a mix with Metallica's own Black Album that the famous intellectual copyright defenders conveniently don't seem to mind... could it be that it's providing them with some much-needed X-factor?

And finally - for me, for today - The Slack Album. Since the Jay-Z disc and Pavement's Slanted And Enchanted both have 14 tracks, the remixer here imposed the additional restriction of fusing Track 1 on one record with its Track 1 counterpart on the other. A tremendous, pointless achievement!

I'm off now to combine Jay-Z with R.E.M. for The Dark Green Album. The lead single will be Get That Orange Crush Off Your Shoulder. Meanwhile, you can download The Grey Album here (requires BitTorrent). Sony has now dropped its legal action so you ain't even breaking da law no mo'.