Any two of those (minus, maybe the never sold a copy and busty actresses crap album) is impressive. That an album that you can't buy on iTunes or your local brick and mortar is influential and is being resold for hundreds of dollars is a status usually reserved for original Beatle pressings.
Which is fitting, because The Grey Album includes the Beatles. The Grey Album is incredible in both scope and execution. I'm not sure what's greater--the hubris of thinking you can mix two masterpieces--The Beatle's, The White Album, and Jay-Z's, The Black Album-- or the talent exhibited in being able to pull it off with such incredible results. This album is probably old news to some, but tack it up under, Things I Should Have Listened To Years Ago.
Danger Mouse, a mashup artist and producer extraordinare (now) is the creative mind behind this awesome bastardization of one of the best rock albums of all time (The White Album, if there was a question on which of the two i was referring to) and one of the defining hip-hop albums for this generation of artists. You might know Danger Mouse from other projects of his--Gorillaz, Gnarles Barkley and, immenently, Broken Bells, another duo with James Mercer of indie-hipster-cred powerhaus The Shins. The guy clearly has skills. So why have you never seen this album in stores or, potentially, never heard of it or the songs contained on it?
Copyright infringement laws.
I'll leave the arguments over whether someone who takes what one person creates and significantly alters it is creating something new or if they're infringing on copyrights to the EFF and others more versed in the legal arguments, but, essentially that's what this boils down to. Danger Mouse takes these two albums and starts mixing them together without, it seems, permission from either artist--although it should be noted that Jay-Z released the a-capella recordings of this album for personal remixes. So Danger Mouse goes to town and apparently kept it under the radar long enough to finish because he sent out 3000 promo CD's for review. The reviews were enthusiastic, to say the least--and they go the attention of EMI, who holds the rights to the Beatle's catalog.
You can see where this is going.
EMI sends a cease and desist order and blocks the CD from being sold, but, this is mid 2000's. You can't stop the signal. So the album gets out in electronic format and folks go coocoo for cocoa puffs.
Which brings me to how i got my hands on it.
There is something magical in hearing What More Can I Say played over the iconic piano riff of George Harrison's masterpiece, While My Guitar Gently Weeps. Wait, what? Yeah. It works in the most bizarre way that is simultaneously ear openingly different, smile poppingly good and, Get-Your-Dirty-Mitts-Off-This-Sacrosanct-Song music-rage inducingly problematic. Which brings me back to the, what kind of stones do you have to have to think you can mash these two albums, question. Apparently, you need to have massive stones and you gotta match that with massive skill.
The album continues on with an Encore/Savoy Truffle/Glass Onion mashup, which is probably my favorite on the album. 99 Problems (But a Bitch Ain't One) is mixed with Helter Skelter. Interlude meets Revolution #9. Moment of Clarity is matched with Happiness is a Warm Gun.
This is some f'ed up shit, and it is awesome.
You still can't buy the album, but you can probably find it online. It took about 5 minutes for me to locate it. It is worth the download, without question.
Album: The Grey Album
Artist: Danger Mouse, The Beatles, Jay-Z (without permission)
Best Tracks: All of it. Just listen.
Listen if you like: Music. Listen to it even if you're not a hip-hop fan.
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