Worth Hearing: Blakroc

What happens when you take the Black Keys' instrumentals (some of the best in music, let alone blues, today) and put some of the best rappers in the last twenty years over it?

Blakroc.

The Black Keys playing behind the likes of, among others, Mos' Def, Rza, Q-Tip, Raekwon and even a posthumous appearance by ODB. If you're any fan of either the Keys or any of the lyricists involved, you do not want to let this moment in the ever-evolving world of indie music pass.

Blakroc is a collaboration between Akron-based modern blues masters the Black Keys and a slew of very credible rappers, all of whom can apparently be found in Damon Dash's Blackberry.

As the web-series documenting the project shows, Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney of the Black Keys were busy in a Brooklyn studio milling about vintage recording equipment and mountains of guitar pedals until hip-hop mogul Dash enters the frame. Why is he there? Apparently he's a big Keys fan. How the collaboration got off the ground? Who cares. Just listen.

The formula is this: Carney, as talented a drummer as Auerbach is a guitarist, lays down his signature brand of hip-hop savvy drum beats. Auerbach layers his reverb-and-fuzz soaked riffs. Dam' Dash dials up some of the biggest names in hip-hop, who then pen rhymes on the spot to slip on top of the Keys' doings and voila, BlakRoc.

But don't let the notion of a rap/rock combination album turn you off based on previous failed attempts (see Limp Bizkit). In my opinion, the combo has always been a three-listen-max novelty, if that.

Dan Auerbach seems to agree, in chapter 7 of the Blackroc web-series Auerbach assures the day's resident rhyme-man, Q-Tip, that this project is not like what's come before.

"That's what we're tryin' to avoid, Rap-metal," Auerbach tells Q-Tip in the video. "We're tryin' to stay the fuck away from that."

And they manage to do that readily. From watching the videos, which I highly recommend, the collaboration is as fulfilling for the Keys as it is the rappers filing in and out of the various studios. Pharoah Munze for one takes to slapping his hand against the recording booth's wood panelled walls once he finally nails his verse.

But even if you don't like the music, the novelty of seeing Dam' Dash (of all people) bobbing his head to the Black Keys' ballsy blues and the giddiness in Mos' Def's grinning face upon first hearing the Keys' backing tracks in the first episode of the web-series is well worth the video load time.

Also, any installment of the web-series featuring Jim Jones is entertainment in and of itself. See chapter 2 for Jones, Mos' Def and Dam' Dash discussing Michael Jordan and a toe infection he once had during a game and the idea of him betting on himself in the NBA finals.

If you do like the music, you won't be able to contain yourself watching Mos' Def bouncing back and forth outside Dash's Mercedez-Benz, windows down with the Keys' contributions blasting, while he improv's his own take on that particular track's chorus.

So far the album, which was released on Nov. 27, is available on iTunes, Amazon, the Blakroc website and local independant record stores around the country (You can find a directory of the stores carrying it here).

I hadn't heard about this until listening to a show on WFUV Fordham Radio called the Alternate Side last night, and man am I glad I happened to be driving home at that particular hour.

Many thanks to WFUV for bringing this to the airwaves because it is a project that has finally rekindled the obsessive compulsion I tend to fall into over good new music. A phenomenon I've felt deprived of since hearing Deer Tick's sophomore release, "Born on Flag Day", which, sadly, I actually went out and bought last summer.

Here's the video for the song "Ain't Nothin' Like You (Hoochie Coo)" featuring Mos' Def with the chorus mentioned earlier and Jim Jones:

Blakroc: Ain't Nothing Like You (Hoochie Coo) Ft. Mos Def and Jim Jones from Jonah Schwartz on Vimeo.