In January 2004, Roc-a-fella released Jay-Z’s Black Album on wax, but this time it was a strictly accapella with no beats underneath Jay’s tight lyrics.
“I was listening to it while I was cleaning up my place,” says a bemused DJ Dangermouse “And I was like…damn, I can do something wild with this. And I have always been a fan of the Beatles and I knew that their music had some sick breaks in it. It took about two weeks and I had the end product…a combination of the Jay’s ‘Black’ and the Beatle’s ‘White Album’…so quite naturally I dubbed the end result ‘The Grey Album’.”
Dangermouse is rather humble when referring to “The Grey Album”. What started off as an inspirational “musical art project” 2 weeks before Christmas 2003 has made the Hip Hop community do a double take on the LA based DJ’s skills.
Dangermouse worked the boards on the beats from 15 songs from Beatles; “Long, Long, Long,” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” “Glass Onion,” “Savoy Truffle,” “Mother Nature’s Son,” “Helter Skelter,” “Julia,” “Happiness is Warm Gun,” “Piggies,” “Dear Prudence,” “Rocky Raccoon,” “Revolution 1,” “Revolution 9,” “I’m So Tired” and “Cry Baby Cry”.
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Looping drums, piano and guitars before binding them with Jay-Z’s now classic lyrics. “It was something that I had to do,” says Danger “I wasn’t out to make money…I pressed limited copies which I distributed to people in the industry…most notably Rick Rubins who did ’99 Problems’ on ‘Black’. He loved it and passed a copy on to Jay-Z. I’ve heard he loves it…though I haven’t heard directly from him.”
When contacted Mr. Carter said “Work like Danger’s is what I had in mind when I was in the studio doing ‘Black’…I did the accapella version just to see what DJs would do with it. I’m feeling it…too bad that it’s causing some people paper controversy.”
Jay may be pleased with the work that Dangermouse has put in…but, Jonathan H. Campbell, Legal and Business Affairs officer for EMI Records, North America has an entirely different take on Danger’s “work”.
“EMI/Capitol Recordings are the legal owner of the 15 songs by the Beatles,” stated Campbell “These songs have been pirated and distributed. Based on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, 17 U.S.C.
