Mashup Monday (on time) at Now Hear This

One of the most famous (and controversial) examples of the mashup genre is Danger Mouse‘s “The Grey Album”. Released in early 2004, it layered the a cappella version of Jay-Z’s The Black Album over instrumentals created from unauthorized samples from The Beatles’ self-titled double album more commonly known as The White Album. White + Black = Grey, get it?

Needless to say EMI popped a vein slapping cease & desist orders on anyone distributing the limited copies Danger Mouse produced (rumored to be in the neighborhood of 3,000). This somewhat defensible protection of EMI’s copyright led to an impressive grass roots movement to distribute the record over the internet led by the folks at Downhill Battle. Dubbed “Grey Tuesday”, February 24th, 2004 saw roughly 170 sites hosting the album for download. Estimates range up to 100,000 copies dl’ed that day. Happy to say I’m one of ‘em. Hurray for internet civil disobedience!

Two of my favorite tracks:
Encore
December 4th

There’s also this fabulous video for “Encore” directed by the Swiss duo Ramon and Pedro (aka Laurent Fauchere and Antoine Tinguely). I can’t decide what I like best, scratching Ringo or headspinning John…

Quick note about the tunes

The mp3s on this blog are to give folks a little taste. Imagine they're those little pouches on the bag your Sunday paper comes in. You know, the one's with a packet containing just enough toothpaste to brush your teeth once or twice. They are left up for a limited time. If you find something you like support the artists by dragging your friends to their shows and/or buying their CDs/records/schwag. If you are the artist (or their label/representative) and don't want an mp3 on here, please email me (mike@nowhearthismusic.com) and I'll remove it posthaste.

Now Hear This