danger mouse grey album download “The Grey Album”: An Internet classic revisited. Last week, sound engineer John Stewart celebrated the eighth anniversary of ’s The Grey Album by releasing a remastered version via Mediafire zip file. That’s an awkward benchmark to examine the revolutionary mashup project, which layered Jay-Z’s vocals from The Black Album over warped highlights from ’ eponymous 1968 masterpiece that fans collectively branded The White Album . For starters, few pop culture moments this side of John Kerry’s fear of gay marriage make 2004 feel more dated than The Grey Album’s now also-ran cut and pasting. The tale of Grey reads like the plot of a ‘90s hacker thriller where someone accidentally dials up a 56K connection and finds a code that could change everything : million-dollar company sues starving bedroom artist and makes him the most-wanted producer in America along the way. The issue actually bypassed the freshman interest-group debates about Napster and entirely, because Danger Mouse’s crime (real name: Brian Burton) was not initially Internet-based. He produced roughly 3,000 copies and peddled CD-Rs independently like a Memphis rapper, and then EMI (the major label that’s survived on the Fab Four’s catalog) brought in an army of Machiavellian lawyers to squash it. It was this excess force that spun a classical freedom fighter firestorm about digital copyrights and fair use and statutory license. On Feb. 4, 2004, the now-defunct Worcester, Mass.-based Downhill Battle and nearly 200 sympathetic websites hosted the album for free on their servers for 24 hours to counter EMI’s efforts, and 100,000 people downloaded in civil disobedience. Eight years later, apparently, The Grey Album endures as one of the most heralded, important, and influential albums of the 21 st century. Thank well-earned martyrdom coupled with one pretty-cool-at-the-time idea. By mashup standards, however, the album doesn’t hold up—and it barely did eight years ago. The Avalanches’ 2001 LP Since I Left You , for instance, packed 3500 samples into one coherent, hour-long work. 2ManyDJ’s 2003’s As Heard On Soulwax is similarly full of drag and drop showmanship and evokes dancing. Here, the “” loops don’t even sync with the distinct cadences of “Helter Skelter.” The “” riff that accompanies “December 4’s” verses is the only instance on The Grey Album where the mashup outduels the song its leeching. Within the culture, it’s one giant unlistenable crime against hip-hop because it cheapened the creative spirit of a genre it was supposed to champion. The Black Album is the best album from the most prolific commercial rapper of all-time because of two key items: Jay-Z raps like a sultan and selects beats like a scholarly dork. Jay-Z’s most underrated talent as a musician has always been his curation of beats. The “Fade to Black” documentary about the creative process behind The Black Album shows him tirelessly skimming potential tracks without pretention or favors; 14 people wound up with producer credits, including nobody duo, The Buchanans. They’re still relative nobodies, but they gave us rap song for the ages, “?” To the former point, producers were so quick to pirate his ‘hood favorite vocals and them that Jay’s people released an acapella version of The Black Album specifically for bootleggers to flesh them out with their own beats. I had a buddy who spent most of a semester smoking weed and working on his own Black Album and the result was somewhat naïve in ambition but a great and worthwhile exercise in composition. Once the Grey Album made Pazz & Jop’s top 10, the game plan for producers changed. The notion of juxtaposing pop music into mashups was nothing new eight years ago. That’s what’s made hip-hop such a fresh and interesting genre for four decades. But this was more direct and calculated. Peer-to-peer file-sharing by off the grid DJs helped spurn the practice while standardizing it: stack vocals over beats forged from cheeky origins not commonly found in the hip-hop genre. To make it work, one just needs to be a learned media guardian—urban kids who know suburban culture can gather and disseminate and live off their all-encompassing taste. (See the /Jay-Z mashup, Jaydiohead . ) It should be noted that Danger Mouse, the producer, has shed his party crasher aesthetic and blossomed into a wonderful engineer, songwriter, and producer. His tight drumming on Beck’s Modern Guilt is virtuosic, human, and passionate. After the lawsuits his next two national projects— collaborating with eccentric masked rapper MF Doom on the hilarious and thumping LP and owning pop during the summer of 2006 by way of ’s “Crazy”—left Grey in the dust with an army of opportunistic mashups. Danger mouse grey album download. Burgeoning producers take note: If you're seriously interested in gaining attention, follow DJ Danger Mouse's plan. First, take the acapella vocals from an already dope album (in this case, Jay-Z's Black Album), and lay them over some sick beats. And, if you really want to hit it big, use unauthorized samples from the greatest rock �n roll band of all time. While Danger Mouse's remix-thriving contemporaries like up-and-comers 9th Wonder and Soul Supreme (both of whom have created excellent work in their own right) may have produced better overall work, Danger Mouse's Grey Album, will, for better or worse, be remembered by most as the crowning popular achievement of the chic remixing endeavors. Ironic Danger Mouse chose to mix The Black Album's acapellas with beats from The Beatles' White Album, because, as daring (and illegal) as this idea was in and of itself, many critics acknowledge the double-disc White Album as The Beatles' most daring and experimental. While few fans (if any at all), will wish that The Grey Album was the official release instead of the actual Black Album, it does offer an extremely interesting, and ultimately, pleasing listen. The highlights are abundant, and disappointments minimal. The incredible exuberance of Just Blaze's "Public Service Announcement," tragically limited to just an interlude on the official Black Album, is reworked here over The Beatles' "Long, Long, Long" into something entirely different, though the new, somber feel nearly equals the original's compulsivity. The heavy keys and acoustic guitar-chord strums of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" marries nicely with "What More Can I Say," though the most impressive feature of this track is the stuttering bass kicks. Danger Mouse displays a rather skilful ear on the lead single from The Black Album, The Neptunes-produced "," as he meshes The Beatles' acid trip-induced "" into an equally glossy track�even managing to find the right key so that Pharrell's trademark falsetto vocals stay in pitch with the samples. This deftness was no fluke though, as he later pulls off the same assimilation trick with Jay's "Allure" and The Beatles' "Dear Prudence." Perhaps the most impressive feat of the entire remix is, unexpectedly, the transformation of Timbaland's club banger, "Dirt Off Your Shoulders," from thick bass lines and synth melodies into a catchy guitar loop and heavy, rapid-fire bass kicks that could easily bump in the clubs just as well as the original. Those who were never struck by The Beatles' "Julia" as a dance track are in for a huge surprise. And, in a similar vain, Danger Mouse offers "Justify My Thug," DJ Quik's disappointing contribution to the Black Album, a similarly impressive makeover ' "," even managing to squeeze a brief harmonica snippet in the loop. There are a few missteps, however, on The Grey Album. Though not a bad remix, the obvious meshing of "99 Problems" with "Revolution #9" is really not much of a remix per se, as the original versions of both tracks feature abrasive electric guitar strokes and crashing cymbals. And, coincidentally, the tracks which seem to present Danger Mouse with the most problems are both productions, though neither is altogether intolerable; "Lucifer" and "Encore" are two of the weaker ones on The Grey Album, particularly the latter, where the vocals and the music from "" seem to be just a split second out-of-step. While The Grey Album will likely stand for a long time as a pop music anomaly�a bastard child of two pretty different music genres�it will also maintain credibility as not just a one-listen-wonder. After the curiosity factor has worn off, it still plays amazingly well and displays not just the talents of two entities with whom music fans are already familiar (The Beatles and Jay-Z), but also, and more importantly, Danger Mouse's seamless ability to mix the two. Ironically, one of the tracks spared from Danger Mouse's keen remix wizardry is "Threats," originally produced by 9th Wonder, whose much-ballyhooed interpretation of Nas' God's Son (aptly-titled God's Stepson) helped win him a beat on The Black Album. Though Danger Mouse's original work with partner Jemini is easily overshadowed by media exposure in the wake of receiving cease and desist orders, his original goal of making his name a household one was reached, and even exceeded. Those without a copy of The Grey Album probably won't be able to find one of the few thousand original presses (which will some day fetch a pretty penny on eBay), but this is one of the rare cases where the artist likely encourages file-sharing. Regardless of means of acquisition, this one is a must have. Music Vibes : 9 of 10 Lyric Vibes : 9 of 10 TOTAL Vibes : 9 of 10. Download A Remastered Version Of The Grey Album. Seems like not too long ago that The Grey album came out and caught the internet by storm. For those of you who need a refresher, The Grey Album is a mashup of The Beatles White Album with Jay-Z’s Black Album. It was done by a young Danger Mouse, pretty much launching his career. It was a great concept, and one that launched hundreds of album mashup imitators that never quite matched. As our friends at Beats Per Minute point out, engineer John Stewart has re-mastered the whole thing and released it for free. Free Download: Danger Mouse’s Classic “The Grey Album” Remastered. It’s a bit weird to think that Danger Mouse’s mash up masterpiece, The Grey Album , came out in 2004. Damn where does the time go? If you haven’t heard it, The Grey Album takes Jay-Z’s The Black Album and sets it alongside the Beatles’ White Album . From a technical point of view it was a pretty amazing concept, but sonically the music was middle-of-the-ground territory, as it was a bootleg and didn’t sound all that crisp or clear. Eight years on and The Grey Album has been remastered by engineer John Stewart, and just like when it originally came out…it’s being offered up as free to download. The link is dead, but you can stream the LP below. Stewart's website is gone as well and there appear to be some sort of hard copies floating around the web. Danger mouse grey album download. A week ago Tuesday, despite the threat of legal action, some 170 Web sites offered for download DJ Danger Mouse�s The Grey Album � an amalgam of the vocals from every song on Jay-Z�s The Black Album (Roc-A-Fella) remixed with music taken entirely from The Beatles (Capitol), a/k/a "The White Album." At least 400 more Web sites were shaded gray as a sign of solidarity. "Grey Tuesday," as it was called, was characterized by its organizers as an act of coordinated civil disobedience against the restrictive nature of copyright laws. EMI, which publishes the Beatles� catalogue, called it "a serious violation of Capitol�s rights," and cease-and-desist notices arrived on the doorsteps of the participating sites on February 23. Downhillbattle.com, the Worcester-based Web site that organized the protest, estimates that 100,000 copies of The Grey Album were distributed on Grey Tuesday alone � which likely made the "disc," if only for a day, the #1 release in the country. Worcester�s Holmes Wilson and Nicholas Reville founded downhillbattle.com last August as one of a growing number of Web sites devoted to toppling the five major labels� grip on the music industry. The pair come from a background of global-justice activism � while a student at Brown University in 2000, Reville helped organize a collegiate sweatshop-monitoring consortium � and their criticism of music-industry practices is colored by a broader critique of corporate culture. The site offers T-shirts that read "Peer-to-Peer Kills Pay-to-Play" � a reference to the industry�s stated claim that downloading hurts record sales, and to the claim that the labels continue to monopolize radio airplay through payola � as well as stickers meant to be placed on major-label titles that read: "WARNING: Buying this CD funds lawsuits against children and families." Wilson is a Jay-Z fan, and in January, a friend e-mailed him about a spate of unauthorized of The Black Album that had been circulating on the Web. Hip-hop and dance artists have long issued versions (often as B-sides) in order to encourage DJs to remix their singles. In the past, Roc-A-Fella had made a point of not releasing its material a cappella , but The Black Album is being marketed as Jay-Z�s swan song, and the release of the two-LP a cappella was widely seen as a parting gift to rap fans and producers. Although at least a dozen Black Album remixes would eventually flood the market, The Grey Album distinguished itself from the pack. In a matter of weeks, it jumped from an underground Web- only phenomenon � a disc lauded by hip-hop bloggers, traded on file-sharing networks, and available from a select few on-line DJ specialty shops � to a mainstream sensation, with press coverage on MTV, in the New York Times , and in the New Yorker . "It�s not just a mash-up," says Wilson. "He�s really getting deep with pulling apart the sounds [of "The �White Album"]. It�s a crystal-clear example of an album for people who are suspicious of sampling to grasp what�s valuable about this new form." Sampling isn�t exactly new, but Holmes and Reville are relative newcomers to copyright law, and the two can sound a little naive. Their thinking on the issue is heavily influenced by the writings of Stanford Law School professor Lawrence Lessig and what Robert S. Boynton in the January 25 New York Times Magazine referred to a couple months ago as the "Copy Left" � a group of intellectuals and activists who argue that the recently tightened copyright law will have far-reaching effects on free speech, creativity, and commerce. "In less than a decade," Boynton wrote, the "liberating potential of the Internet seems to have given way to something of an intellectual land grab presided over by legislators and lawyers for the media industries." People in the music industry would "rather keep the focus on their stars and the focus off the way the business works," says Holmes. "But file sharing has pulled them out of the shadows." On the surface, The Grey Album seems a poor launching pad for a copyright crusade. The allowance in copyright law for fair-use provisions makes for many gray areas. But unlike Negativland, the avant-garde group who landed in court over "U2," their 1991 sound- appropriation of "I Still Haven�t Found What I�m Looking For," Danger Mouse does not claim any fair-use protection. Although he admitted to pressing about 3000 "promotional" copies of the disc, The Grey Album was intended to be a limited-edition collector�s item, not unlike countless other white-label releases that proliferate on-line and trickle into such DJ-boutique specialty shops as hiphopsite.com, fatbeats.com, and turntablelab.com. "That�s one of the things I struggled with," he told the New Yorker . "I told myself, �Never will this come out.� " Last month, when EMI ordered him to cease and desist from distributing The Grey Album (the action that prompted downhillbattle.com to take up the cause), the artist humbly complied. Still, the disc has become a flash point for file sharing and copyright activists such as illegal-art.org. One of the first sites to offer The Grey Album for download, it cited the disc as an example of "what is rapidly becoming the �degenerate art� of a corporate age: art and ideas on the legal fringes of intellectual property." And downhillbattle.com is arguing a fair-use exemption for Grey Tuesday. "If we get taken to court," says Wilson, "I�m going to get up and say that copyright is not created by corporations to protect their interests: it�s created by the public. And for the public to make informed decisions about copyright law, people need to hear the stuff the current system suppresses. If you can�t hear it, then you don�t know what we�re missing." "Anyone who is claiming that this is fair use obviously does not have a grasp of the copyright statute and probably hasn�t read it," responds EMI spokesperson Jeanne Meyer, though she declined to say whether EMI will pursue further legal action. Meanwhile, hinting at the enormous complexity of copyright law, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital-rights advocacy group, suggested in a recent post on its Web site that EMI might be forced to take the case to state courts, arguing that no federal copyright protection exists for recordings made prior to 1972. "The White Album" was released in 1968.