Jaydiohead: (self titled)

Posted by admin on Mar 10, 2009 in Arts & Culture | 1 comment

I love Jay-Z. I love him for making his vocals on The Black Album available for DJs and amateur beat-makers around the world to play with.

Danger Mouse took advantage of the situation early and dropped The Grey Album, which set Hova to samples from the Beatle’s White Album. Now Minty Fresh Beats has taken the field with Jaydiohead, both the project and album name. As you might be able to guess, it’s a mash-up of Jay-Z and Radiohead. You’ll probably hear about it soon from a friend if this article doesn’t reach you first.

For anyone with tastes eclectic enough to appreciate both those artists, I’ve said enough. Those of you yet to be convinced, here it is: the album takes Jay-Z’s most salient verses from his most recent albums, so you don’t need to worry about a thousand references to bling and top-dollar alcohol. Combine that with Radiohead’s ready selection of sketchy-beats and distorted, intelligent guitars. It makes for a more melancholy album all around, especially on the track “Change Order” as Thom Yorke’s voice pairs against Hova.

There are a few places on the album where the mixing is off and the guitars are too loud for the vocals, but on the whole, MFB’s has given a worthy offering to music downloaders around the world. The litmus test for me is always whether a Jay-Z remix can improve on the beats for “Dirt Off Your Shoulder” and “99 Problems.” Jaydiohead is the closest competition I’ve seen to those tracks by Timbaland and Rick Rubin.

Since the samples are illegal, it’s a free download. Grab your Ethernet and go to jaydiohead.com for the bittorrent or talk to me and I’ll hook you up.