Danger Mouse’s Beatles/Jay-Z Mashup ‘Grey Album’ Remastered
He's an in-demand producer and hit recording artist today, but eight years ago, Danger Mouse was just another struggling hip-hop artist -- until he went and mashed up the Beatles' 'White Album' with Jay-Z's 'The Black Album' to produce the viral sensation 'The Grey Album.'
While its distribution was obviously and utterly illegal, the project was also so brazenly creative -- and actually hung together well enough as an album in its own right -- that both Jay-Z and Paul McCartney publicly gave it their blessing. That didn't stop the Beatles' former label bosses at EMI from trying to quash its dissemination, but we all know how the internet works by now -- once something makes it into the wild, it's pretty much impossible to keep it from spreading, and that's exactly what 'The Grey Album' did.
Now audio engineer John Stewart has taken the liberty of remastering the "original" tracks. "'The Grey Album' is a masterpiece," he explained in a press release. "It's one of those projects that really, really pushed boundaries of thought and art in this music s---. I've always been in love with this project but certain sonic qualities always killed me. Shout to Danger Mouse for creating a classic. I just gave it a touch up. It's still raw but its definitely clearer and hits harder."
True to the spirit of the project, Stewart has posted the results of his efforts for free stream and/or download, and we've embedded them below. If you've never listened to 'The Grey Album' before, here's your chance to hear a Beatles classic in a whole new light.