The Grey Album

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This article refers to the album by Danger Mouse. Beatallica's eponymous album Beatallica is often referred to as "The Grey Album".
Image:Mergefrom.gif It has been suggested that Grey Tuesday be merged into this article or section. ([[{{{2|: talk:The_Grey_Album}}}|Discuss]])
Template:Album infobox

The Grey Album was a controversial album by Danger Mouse released in 2004 (see 2004 in music). It uses an acappella version of rapper Jay-Z's Black Album and couples it with instrumentals created from a multitude of unauthorized samples from The Beatles' White Album.

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Overview

The album, which Danger Mouse released in limited quantities to a few outlets, created a massive amount of controversy when EMI, the White Album's copyright holder, ordered Danger Mouse and retailers carrying the album to cease distribution of the album. While mixtapes and other recordings containing unauthorized samples and copies of songs are sold and distributed regularly unnoticed by record labels that own the recordings, the amount of attention The Grey Album received caused EMI to act. Danger Mouse never asked permission to use the Beatles' material, and intended to fly under the radar with a limited production run of 3,000 copies.

Jay-Z's material, on the other hand, was commercially released in acappella form. Although the work was copyrighted, it was released for the implicit purpose of encouraging mash-ups and mixes.

EMI's response to the album caused Downhill Battle, an activist group seeking to restructure the music industry, to start and lead a massive Internet-based protest dubbed Grey Tuesday, to express the opinion that sampling is fair use and that a statutory license should be provided in the same manner as if a given song had been covered.

Although the album was already well-known among hip-hop and mash-up afficionados, the album quickly became extremely popular and well-distributed over the Internet because of the surrounding publicity. It also came to the attention of the critical establishment; It received a very positive write-up in the February 9, 2004 issue of The New Yorker and was named the Best of 2004 in the category music by Entertainment Weekly. The Village Voice's annual Pazz and Jop critics poll ranked the album 10th for 2004.[1]

The Grey Album is one of many Black Album remix albums spurred by Jay-Z's release of The Black Album acapellas. Producers Kno (from the Cunninlynguists) and Kevin Brown earlier had released their own color-themed remix albums, titled The White Albulum and The Brown Album respectively. The Internet distribution of The Grey Album spurred a series of copycat DJs and amateur mash-up artists to mix the acappella version of the Black Album with a variety of other artists, including WeezerTemplate:Ref, PavementTemplate:Ref, PrinceTemplate:Ref, MetallicaTemplate:Ref, Sin CityTemplate:Ref, & Wu-Tang ClanTemplate:Ref.

The promotional artwork for the album was done by Justin Hampton.

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Track listing

  1. "Public Service Announcement" - 2:45
  2. "What More Can I Say" - 4:25
  3. "Encore" - 2:40
  4. "December 4th" - 3:34
  5. "99 Problems" - 4:06
  6. "Dirt Off Your Shoulder" - 3:59
  7. "Moment Of Clarity" - 4:00
  8. "Change Clothes" - 4:04
  9. "Allure" - 4:06
  10. "Justify My Thug" - 4:12
  11. "Lucifer 9 (Interlude)" - 2:01
  12. "My 1st Song" - 4:44
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The Grey Video

The Grey Video is a music video made in the fall of 2004 by directing team Ramon & Pedro to promote the single "Encore" from The Grey Album. The video, which is entirely in black and white, features clips from The Beatles' movie A Hard Day's Night, and footage from a Jay-Z performance. It uses new footage and computer generated imagery to create scenes that involve John Lennon breakdancing and Ringo Starr scratching.

It begins with The Beatles performing before cameras and a live audience. Ringo Starr begins to drum to the 1:00 to 1:08 segment of "Glass Onion". John Lennon begins to sing while George Harrison and Paul McCartney nod their heads to the beat. After a few moments, the monitors in the director's booth begin to flicker, showing scenes of Jay-Z rapping "Encore" and the lyrics of the chorus begin to show behind group. Ringo's drum kit becomes a turntable and he begins to scratch while John continues to sing "Oh yeah!" as sampled from "Glass Onion."

As "Encore" moves into the second verse, the beat changes to a sample of "Savoy Truffle". A John Lennon body double starts to breakdance, leading to a headspin. Paul and George are replaced by two dancers. "John" backflips off the screen, flinging his wig off. Ringo walks off and the lights fade to black.

The video is not available commercially, but has became popular over the internet. Due to the legal issues surrounding the use of copyrighted material, the video is shown with the disclaimer that it was made for experimental purposes only.

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See also

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Notes

  1. Template:Note Mike's The Black and Blue Album
  2. Template:Note DJ N-Wee's The Slack Album
  3. Template:Note K12 of 12-N-Dirty Productions The Purple Album
  4. Template:Note Cheap Cologne's Double Black Album
  5. Template:Note DJ CooL Guy Persents: Jay-Z in The Black Chamber
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External links

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