Thursday, November 08, 2007

The 11 Best Jay-z Mash-Ups From The Black Album

Jay-Z is to blame for the internet revolution. Two albums back...his supposed last album, titled The Black Album...was released in an Acapella-only mode. Jay-Z encouraged young budding DJ to remix his album for free. Sometimes, you have to be careful what you wish for. Hundreds of DJ took the chore to task turning out some blazing tracks. But one DJ saw the future. Danger Mouse (one part Gnarls Barkley), mashed the Black album with the Beatles White Album and created the Grey Album. Up until In Rainbows, it was probably the most famous internet-only album of all time. It was also the most illegal. Jay-Z didn't care and embraced it...but the Beatles were slightly pissed off. But Danger Mouse had opened the floodgates, DJs began combining Jay-z with ever musically themed color they could think of...we saw the Purple Album (Prince), The Double Black Album (Metallica), The Black and Blue album (Weezer)...people went farther sampling Nirvana's Unplugged, The Grateful Dead and even Beethoven. Linkin Park took to the Nth degree releasing a mash-up EP with Sir Jay-Z. Overall, some had some phenomenal mixes....some even better than the originals. I can't even listen to Encore without waiting for Linkin Park to kick. Overall the Grey Album is more listenable. And the Pavement remix may be the most ambitious hip-hop album...ever.

I've lost many of the remixes over the years...but here are some of the best that I have.

Here are The 11 Best Jay-z Mash-Ups From The Black Album:

1. Numb/Encore - Linkin Park & Jay-z (Hear the expanded version with 50 Cent, Eminem & Dr. Dre) - (Collision Course)
2. 99 Luft Problems - Jay-Z & Nena
3. What More Can I Say - Jay-Z and the Beatles (The Grey Album)
4. Say It Dec. 4th - Jay-Z & Weezer (The Black and Blue Album)
5. Encore - Jay-Z & The Beatles (The Grey Album)
6. What More Can I Singe? - Jay-Z and Pavement (The Slack Album)
7. Unforgiven Moment of Clarity - Jay-Z & Metallica (The Double Black Album)
8. Allure in the Garage - Jay-Z & Weezer (The Black and Blue Album)
9. Dirt Off Your Shoulder/Lying From You - Jay-Z & Linkin Park (Collision Course)
10. In The Mouth, An Encore - Jay-Z & Pavement (The Slack Album)
11. 99 Problems But True - Jay-Z & Metallica (The Double Black Album)

Buy Jay-z's new soundtrack to the movie "American Gangster" here.

2 comments:

TJ said...

If you like Numb/Encore, I invite you to hear the performance from the 2006 Grammys with Paul McCartney throwing "Yesterday" into the mix.

Jay-Z/Linkin Park/Paul McCartney - Numb/Encore/Yesterday

==TJ==

die robot h said...

yo check out jaydiohead... http://www.last.fm/music/Jaydiohead
its radiohead-jay z some of them are really good