RSSDanger Mouse & Black Thought [extended]
- The Grey Album [no label, 2004] **
- The Mouse and the Mask [Epitaph, 2005] A-
- Ashmore's Store [Good Track, 2012] *
- Streams of Thought Vol. 2 [Human Re Sources/Passyunk Productions EP, 2018] A
- Cheat Codes [BMG, 2022] A
See Also:
Consumer Guide Reviews:
Danger Mouse: The Grey Album [no label, 2004]
It's tricky to rock a rhyme, to rock a rhyme that's right on time--it's tricky, tricky, tricky, tricky ("99 Problems," "Change Clothes"). **
Danger Doom: The Mouse and the Mask [Epitaph, 2005]
I've seen enough Adult Swim to agree with Epitaph prexy Andy Kaulkin: "Danger Mouse and Doom [which I refuse to uppercase--R.C.] are both brilliant at taking chunks of popular culture and shaping them into art [I would say more art--R.C.]. The context of Adult Swim makes this already promising collaboration truly inspired." Both guys are so irrepressibly playful that they get serious at their peril--they're better off as a nonstop musical goof. Fave detail: Doom's rhyming of the ancient usages "beer and skittles" (meaning ninepins, not some modern candy or long-lost salty snack) and "jot and tittle." I promise to watch the DVD. A-
Michael Koppy: Ashmore's Store [Good Track, 2012]
Inserted in a 112-page minibook and constructed around a seven-section, 27-minute song that was once twice as long, 62-year-old's legacy statement gets an A for Ambition and a C for Corn ("All in the Timing: A Hollywood Romance in Seven Chapters," "Nineteen Years Old") *
Black Thought & Salaam Remi: Streams of Thought Vol. 2 [Human Re Sources/Passyunk Productions EP, 2018]
I always thought Questlove was the brains of the outfit, and conceptually he was. But no longer hemmed in by album concepts or fusion-band masquerade, here's where Tariq Trotter is freed to turn out kick-ass rap mixtapes and show off how much reading he does. From the "Try stoppin' this, I'm on top of the metropolis" of the Prince/Petty-mourning "Fentanyl" to alter ego Reek Ruffin crooning atop a love rap that swears "A lifetime, finally I'm understanding you," he shows John Legend how conscious a romantic lead's conscience can be. New solo contract with Republic or not, he may be too old to play the heartthrob at 48. But it's never the wrong time for a love man to ask the world what's going on. A
Cheat Codes [BMG, 2022]
"Whether you're in Paterson or Pakistan," this is to inform you that Tariq Trotter's "skin tone is aubergine," which rhymes with "war machine" because the man remains a battle rapper of the old school. Fine though his three 2018-2020 mixtapes were, this collaboration took longer, aimed higher, and made the most of it. "Between Harry Belafonte and Harry Allen," conscious everyman turned hungry autodidact Black Thought is proud to show off a vocabulary and knowledge base further embellished by verses from the equally down Raekwon, Killer Mike, Joey Bada$$, and A$AP Rocky--all swamped by what we can only hope isn't the last we'll hear from the great lost MF Doom. And Danger Mouse is an equal partner at least, rejecting trap texturalism in an aural universe still overflowing with diverse, hookily beatwise inventions no one thought of before. Do not expect to hear a better-sounding hip-hop record all year. Instead pray it'll inspire or shame others into giving something similar a shot in an aural universe that still has room for it. A