by: -Joe Davidson producer of “The Boise Fuzz”
The Black Keys have been making waves through the rock world with their refreshing work ethic and awesome modern blues rock. Much to the surprise of many, they have recently teamed up with Hip Hop producer Damon Dash and some of the industry’s most famous rap names (Ludacris, Raekwon, RZA, and Mos Def, just to name a few) for a project that many critics thought would fall flat on its face like similar projects that came before it. However, indie rockers and rap heads rejoice – the Blakroc project does anything but fall on its face.
Each of the album’s eleven tracks were produced in a day each in the studio, with The Black Keys playing bluesy beats and the guest rappers coming up with lyrics just minutes before the songs were to be recorded. The result is an extremely easy to listen to blend of hip hop, R&B, and refreshing blues rock . The Black Keys’ beats are a remarkable fusion of hip hop and their usual bluesy garage rock that flow deftly together throughout the album, and when Dan Auerbach duets with the various R&B artists, the result is very pleasing to the ears.However, the lyrics being written on the fly results in songs that aren’t particularly that deep or meaningful on most of the tracks, but they all flow so well that most people will be able to overlook that fact. Some bits of the tracks do feel a little bit off and awkward in certain places, but these are few and far between.
All in all, this is an amazing record in which music listeners from plenty of different scenes will find something they can get down to. This is a particularly good album to stick into your car’s cd player whilst you are driving. On the Vista, Hard Times, Why Can’t I Forget Him, and What You Do To Me get my vote for the best tracks on this album.
All in all, I give it an eight out of ten.
