I consider myself to be a fan of niether Jay-Z nor Pavement. I don't actively dislike them the way I might dislike Creed (for some reason, I'm at a loss to come up with anymore bands or singers who suck) or whomever. I just haven't taken much notice of them. I've seen Jay-Z on music videos and awards shows, but on the whole, his music makes almost no impact upon me. I know Pavement is a rock band, but that's about it. If I heard anything by them, I don't remember it.
Somehow, the idea that someone would combine the two did intrigue me.
Jay-Z released his "final" CD, The Black Album, earlier this year. For some reason, there are accapella tracks from the record available on the net. Somebody went and took the Black Album with Jay-Z's vocals and remixed it with music from The Beatles' White Album and called it The Grey Album. This "Mash up" got real popular on the net and tons of other people started getting on the band wagon. I never heard The Grey Album, but I did download The Purple Album which takes Jay-Z and combines him with Prince. I only gave it a quick listen. I can't say whether or not it's any good. It just didn't spark my interest enough to listen to the whole thing.
I can say that I love The Slack Album. The guy who put this together (click on the title of this post to see his web page) may've turned me into a Jay-Z fan. Never realized how good this guy was. The music does it's job of accentuating the rapper's lyrics and providing a complete, enjoyable listening experience, that I've never gotten listening to this dudes rhymes before (and he's got assloads of producers working for him). I feel I have to get the actual record to compare the two. I'll probably download it first, as I expect a slight disappointment.
Even though I love the way the music compliments the rhymes, I don't expect to become a fan of Pavement. Some of it sounds suspiciously like it might be nineties Seattle music. I don't really care for that stuff so much, except for SoundGarden and Foo Fighters (I *think* they're from Seattle).
Anyway, I recommend The Slack Album. Download it from your favorite Bittorrent site today. I got it in lossless flac and burned it to CD.
Labels: downloads, music, remix