Grey Tuesday

On Tuesday, February 24, music fans and opponents of current copyright law will engage in a novel form of civil disobedience: To protest the record industry crackdown on DJ Danger Mouse's critically acclaimed Grey Album—a mash-up of The Beatles' White Album and Jay-Z's Black Album—people will be posting the full album on their Web sites for 24 hours. You can download the Grey Album at Illegal Art.

Comments

[mtc]

but...he was still trying to sell thing wasn't he? the links mention that EMI has been sending cease and desist letters to record stores selling the alblum...so if they're giving it all away for free now...the "bad guys" win, no?

PR stunt, blah, blah...now we all know who danger mouse is...

[Julian Sanchez]

Actually, the protest is being orchestrated by this group -- http://www.downhillbattle.org/ -- which claims not to be affiliated with Danger Mouse.

[Douglas Fletcher]

Deconstructionism, isn't that kind of old school by now? I mean, isn't that from the 50s, for god's sake?

[dhex]

ever heard of martin luther?

he remixed that shit real hard.

back in the motherfuckin' day.

[Will]

I'm listening to it now - the mixing is superb... however it's unfortunate that DJ Danger Mouse put so much quality work into an artist who is essentially second rate. Jay-Z is by no means any powerhouse of talent... he's boring, self-serving, predictable, and above all grating. He's only a notch or two above an Eminem or 50-cent and far below true rap talent. He's ignored by most intelligent rap fans (which is not, as I'm sure some of you would try to suggest, an oxymoron.)

If anything this mix reminds me that I owe myself a new copy of the White Album.

[Larry Edelstein]

Eminem is hugely talented. You're an idiot.

[Critic]

No he isn't.
Booger face!

[Will]

Larry,

First of all don't call me an idiot - if you did that to my face I'd probably punch you in your nose. (Heh - maybe I've been listening to much violent rap music...)

Second, I didn't say Eminem wasn't talented - I just said that Jay-Z was a notch or two above him - despite Eminem's incredible record sales and popularity.

That said, neither artist can compare to the likes of RJD2, Talib Kweli, a Tribe Called Quest, De La Sol, El-P, Mos Def, Dilated Peoples and Blackalicious... but that's just my opinion.

The fact is that Eminem's Marshall Mathers LP is a nearly historically fine album - certainly it's in a lot of people's top 10 or 20 rap albums of time lists.

Unfourtunatly, in 5 years, Eminem hasn't demonstrated any depth or growth in his lyric or sound. It's fine if you're some dullard who likes listening to the same broken record over and over again, but if you expect artists to change, grow, experiment and morph their sound and subject matter into something new and greater then you're out of luck with Eminem - he's a one trick pony. There's only so much self-loathing, mother-hate I care to listen to - good studio production values be damned.

[Mark S.]

Grey??? He's doing an album for the Minbari?

(It's G-R-A-Y, BTW.)

[The Wama]

Check the dictionary (www.m-w.com):
Grey: variant of Gray

'nuf said

By the way Will, you left out Deep Puddle Dynamics, a personal favorite, as well as Atmosphere, which makes me question your assumed authority on rap, as well as your god-like ability to dispense unquestionable judgment on what is, in the end, a matter of taste...

The Grey Album is excellent by the way.
EMI is stupid not to capitalize on it.

[Mark S.]

Yeah, but I'm one of those old fashioned types who doesn't like the bastardization of the language. If I had spelled "gray" g-r-e-y back in grade school, it would have been marked down as a spelling error and not a "variant."

When did usage of "grey" become popular?

[Alex]

unless you're a die-hard Jay-Z fan, both Black and Gray albums kinda suck -- the one stand-out is "99 problems" with rick rubin producing.