I was chatting with my good friend Matt earlier today and he reminded me of a great project from a couple of years back. American blues rock band The Black Keys got together with a whole host of rappers, masterminded by Damon Dash (who, perhaps unfairly, I always think of as the man who tried to make Posh Spice ghetto), and the result was Blakroc.
Anyway, it’s a really great record: it strips hip hop back to its roots – a groove and a rhyme. This video of the creation of the project includes some fascinating examples of how different musicians work, including some of the rappers writing their lyrics on a Blackberry, as do the others on the site. Though there’s nothing cool about a Blackberry, everything about Blakroc is supercool. For a taster of what the project was about, here’s one of the stand-out tracks, featuring the always fabulous Mos Def.
30-something English web & music geek, currently in Sydney Google
You’re right, this is a really great record. But mostly because of Aurbach’s input, in my opinion.
Oh, definitely – the whole thing reeks of The Black Keys, but in a good way. That said, he’s no rapper, and thank God he doesn’t try to be. Without the rappers, it would just be an instrumental Black Keys album, and I’m not sure how great that would actually be.