BlakRocBlakRoc, to explain, is a rap/rock collaboration between The Black Keys and various hip-hop artists. And when I say (not to quote myself) “various hip-hop artists,” I don’t mean your erryday, run-of-the-mill, bitches and hoe-ing, club traxx-ing, pimp juicing hip-hop artists we hear excessively, and unfortunately, nowadays. These are the artists true to the craft; the artists that boys like Nas rap about. The real heavy hitters. The ones that white girls like me, can listen to and try and understand where they’re coming from because they’re poetic with their rhymes. This is what I live for, when it comes to music. A sound and a feeling behind the music that I can grab onto; when the musicians, artists, and producers are just as excited about what they’re doing, as we are when we listen to it. I guess by now, you can tell where I’m going with this review. So, where to begin?
The Black Keys are doing what they do best, on this album. Playing the base heavy, organ tempered, soul-laden tunes that you imagine coming out of dimly lit, smoke heavy bars of the late sixties and seventies that a girl like me would’ve been talked out of going to at that time of age. Don’t misunderstand me, from what I said above. The Black Keys need serious accolades for this album. They recorded all the music previous to even meeting the artists that appear. All the lyrics came after. It wasn’t until they joined forces with Damon Dash (executive produce and co-founder of Rock-A-Fella records) did everyone agree to sign on. I highly recommend watching the ‘webisodes’ that are available on www.blakroc.com, it gives you a full behind the scenes picture of what went on. Most of the lyrics were written the day of recording, just whatever the visiting artist gleaned from the music. You can see all the guys like Mos Def, Jim Jones, and Raekwon get excited by what they hear. You get a real idea of the way Q-Tip works, layering, and working off his own rhymes. Billy Danze was originally asked to appear on Dollaz & Sense, but got overly excited when he heard what was already recorded for What You Do To Me.
The stand out song is definitely Ain’t Nothing Like You (Hoochie Coo) featuring Mos Def and Jim Jones. Mos sings with soul and Jim Jones’ rhymes are smooth as can be. His deep and layered voice convinces you when he rhymes words like ‘been’ and ‘wind,’ and ‘petals’ and ‘ghetto,’ effortlessly. The best line in my opnion?: “Being humble is a hard quality to achieve when your ego is crazy with no modesty.” But there are a lot of shiners other than this leading single. Stay Off The Fuckin’ Flowers featuring Raekwon is a personal favourite, as well as Hope You’re Happy featuring Billy Danze, Nicole Wray, and Q-Tip; mixing Q-Tip’s peppered rhymes with Billy Danze’s angry vibrato and Nicole Wray’s heavy vocals. You also shouldn’t miss Coochie featuring Ludacris and O.D.B. (yes, O.D.B) and Done Did It featuring, self-proclaimed king of hip-hop, Jay-Z, both of which are only available on the CD printing, not the iTunes version.
Overall, I was so impressed with this album (which I was only recently informed of it’s existence) that I wrote a review of it 2 years after it’s original release. The artists successfully combine two genres of music I adore and do it with credibility on both ends. Now all I’m waiting for is a follow up.
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