And behold, the best idea you’d never think of:

3.5/5

Back in the day, when You! Listen! Now! was on but its wee 4th episode, I talked about this odd little project being put together called Blakroc. The whole thing seemed very out of nowhere— at that point the only thing the project had to show was a video of blues rock duo The Black Keys laying down a track in the studio with rapper/actor Mos Def. What’s more, the website claimed that the project would be bringing together hip-hop/rap legends such as Old Dirty Bastard, Ludacris, and RZA to work with The Keys as well.

This seemed particularly improbable, as the duo had just barely finished a tour of their own while singer Dan Auerbach had just embarked on a tour for his solo project. However, the two are seemingly masters of busy-work; Blakroc does not mess around.

I’ve been spinning the album for the past couple days since it came out, and let me tell you, these guys sound like they were made for each other. That isn’t to say that every single song on the record is pure gold, but it all sounds like it fits together perfectly. What’s also great is that this kind of collaboration spreads both genres across to the others’ respective sides. Looking at iTunes yesterday, the record was 10th on the charts, the fastest that the indie band has appeared on the list ever. It’ll also be pretty funny to watch hipsters rocking out to RZA.

Personally, my favorite tracks on the record are “On the Vista (feat. Mos Def)”, “Coochie (feat. Ludacris & Old Dirty Bastard)”, and the supposed first single from the record, which you can find below, “Ain’t Nothing Like You (Hoochie Coo) (feat. Mos Def & Jim Jones)”. I’ve got to admit, some tracks just really don’t do it for me— such as “Dollaz & Sense (Pharoahe Monch & RZA)” which, besides the fact that this means The Black Keys were up for spelling “dollers” with a z, but that what would be a clever line of “If it don’t make dollas, it don’t make sense” just gets annoying after getting repeated so many damn times.

Even so, I still really enjoyed a good number of these songs, you can bet I’m gonna be rocking to “Ain’t Nothing Like You” for a good, long time. Hope you enjoy it too!

Y!L!N!