- The Grey Album
Infobox Album
Name = The Grey Album
Type = remix
Longtype = (bootleg)
Artist =Danger Mouse
Released = 2004
Recorded =
Genre = Hip hop, mashup
Length = 44:36
Producer = Danger Mouse
Reviews =
*Allmusic Rating|4.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:9la9qj2wojda link]
*NME (10/10) [http://www.nme.com/reviews/danger-mouse/7347 link]
*Pitchfork Media (7.7/10) [http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/17233/Danger_Mouse_The_Grey_Album link]
*Spin (A-) [http://www.spin.com/reviews/magazine/2004/04/danger_mouse_grey_album/ link]
*Entertainment Weekly Grade: A [http://www.ew.com/ew/article/review/music/0,6115,600274_4_0_,00.html link]
Last album = DM & Jemini
"Ghetto Pop Life "
(2003)
This album = "The Grey Album"
(2004)
Next album =Gorillaz
"Demon Days "
(2005)"The Grey Album" is an album by
Danger Mouse , released in 2004. It uses ana cappella version of rapperJay-Z 's "The Black Album" and couples it with instrumentals created from a multitude of unauthorized samples from "The Beatles" (more commonly known as "The White Album"). "The Grey Album" gained notoriety due to the response byEMI in attempting to halt its distribution.History
The album, which
Danger Mouse released in limited quantities to a few outlets, created a massive amount of controversy whenEMI , copyright holder of "The Beatles", ordered Danger Mouse and retailers carrying the album to cease distribution. 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 produce a limited production run of 3,000 copies. Jay-Z's material, on the other hand, was commercially released ina cappella form. Although the work was copyrighted, it was released for the implicit purpose of encouraging mashups andremix es.The album quickly became 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 album of 2004 by "Entertainment Weekly ". "The Village Voice 's" annualPazz and Jop critics poll ranked the album 10th for 2004.ref|PazzandJop"The Grey Album" is one of many "The Black Album" remix albums spurred by Jay-Z's release of the a cappellas. Producers Kno (from the
Cunninlynguists ) andKev Brown earlier had released their own color-themed remix albums, titled "The White Al-bu-lum" and "The Brown Album" respectively.Pete Rock did a remix of the album as well. The Internet distribution of "The Grey Album" spurred a series of DJs and amateur mashup artists to mix the a cappella version of "The Black Album" with a variety of other artists, includingWeezer ,ref|WeezerMadlib ,ref|Madlib Pavement,ref|Pavement Prince,ref|PrinceMetallica ,ref|Metallica andWu-Tang Clan .ref|Wu-TangA reference to "The Grey Album" was made on the
December 11 ,2006 , edition of "The Colbert Report ". During the show, hostStephen Colbert called for a mashup of "The Beatles" andChristmas songs to be named "The White Christmas Album". He added, "Danger Mouse, I know you're watching."The artwork for the album was created by
Justin Hampton .Danger Mouse commented at length on the creation of the Grey Album in the 2007 Danish documentary "
Good Copy Bad Copy , A documentary about the current state of copyright and culture".Grey Tuesday
"Grey Tuesday" was a day of coordinated
electronic civil disobedience onFebruary 24 ,2004 . Led byDownhill Battle , an activist group seeking to restructure the music industry, participating websites posted copies ofDanger Mouse 's "The Grey Album" for free download on its sites for 24 hours in protest ofEMI 's attempts to prevent any distribution of this unlicensed work. This protest was provoked by the opinion that the sampling isfair use and that astatutory license should be provided in the same manner as if a song had been covered.Supporters of the day say that it signals a refusal by a vocal section of
Internet society to let major label lawyers control musical creativity and specifically sampling. Sampling in hip hop music had been commonplace since the late 1980s; landmarks includePrince Paul 's production onDe La Soul 's 1989 debut3 Feet High and Rising and theDust Brothers ' production on theBeastie Boys ' 1989 album "Paul's Boutique ", both of which used samples from sources as diverse asJohnny Cash ,Bob Marley andThe Beatles .Hundreds of
website s participated and roughly 170 hosted the album for download. Over 100,000 copies were downloaded on that day alone (more than 1 million individual tracks).The legal repercussions of the protest were minimal; a number of the participants received
cease and desist letters from EMI, but no charges were filed in connection with the event.The Grey Video
"The Grey Video" is a
music video made in the autumn of 2004 by directing team [http://www.ramonandpedro.com Ramon & Pedro] , that is Swiss directors Laurent Fauchere and Antoine Tinguely (compare [http://www.partizan.com/partizan/films/shorts/?ramon___pedro/biography] and [http://www.partizanlab.com/partizanlab/commercials/?water/biography] ), to promote the single "Encore" from "The Grey Album".The video, which is entirely in black and white, features clips from
The Beatles ' film "A Hard Day's Night", and footage from aJay-Z performance. It uses new footage andcomputer generated imagery to create scenes that involveJohn Lennon breakdancing andRingo 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 whileGeorge Harrison andPaul McCartney nod their heads to the beat. After a few moments, the monitors in the director's booth begin to flicker, showing scenes ofJay-Z rapping "Encore", and the lyrics of the chorus begin to show behind the group. Starr's drum kit becomes a set of turntables and mixer 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 Lennonbody double starts to breakdance, leading to a headspin. McCartney and Harrison are replaced by two dancers. The Lennon double backflips off the screen, flinging his wig off. The drummer walks off and the lights fade to black.The video is not available commercially, but has become 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 non-commercial and experimental purposes only.
Track listing
#"Public Service Announcement" – 2:45
#*Samples "Long, Long, Long "
#"What More Can I Say" – 4:25
#*Samples "While My Guitar Gently Weeps "
#*Samples "Top Billin'" byAudio Two
#"Encore" – 2:40
#*Samples "Glass Onion " and "Savoy Truffle "
#"December 4th" – 3:34
#*Samples "Mother Nature's Son "
#"99 Problems " – 4:06
#*Samples "Helter Skelter"
#"Dirt Off Your Shoulder " – 3:59
#*Samples "Julia"
#"Moment of Clarity" – 4:00
#*Samples "Happiness Is a Warm Gun "
#"Change Clothes " – 4:04
#*Samples "Piggies " and "Dear Prudence "
#"Allure" – 4:06
#*Samples "Dear Prudence "
#"Justify My Thug" – 4:12
#*Samples "Rocky Raccoon "
#"Lucifer 9 (Interlude)" – 2:01
#*Samples "Revolution 9 " and "I'm So Tired "
#*Samples "Ave, Lucifer" byOs Mutantes
#"My 1st Song" – 4:44
#*Samples "Cry Baby Cry " and "Savoy Truffle " and "Helter Skelter "References
# The Village Voices " [http://www.villagevoice.com/specials/pazznjop/04/albums_winners1.php Winners] "
# Mike's " [http://www.jay-zeezer.com/ The Black and Blue Album] "
# Biz's " [http://www.soulforhire.com/blackvillainy/ Blackvillainy]
# K12 of 12-N-Dirty Productions " [http://www.thepurplealbum.com/purple.html The Purple Album] " Citation broken|date=January 2008
# Cheap Cologne's " [http://www.broke-ass.com/black.html Double Black Album] " Citation broken|date=January 2008
# DJ CooL Guy Presents: Jay-Z in " [http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=71418315 The Black Chamber] "Citation broken|date=September 2008# DJ Zap's " [http://www.lulu.com/content/497782 The Blackprint] " Citation broken|date=January 2008
External links
* [http://www.dangermousesite.com/ Danger Mouse's official homepage]
* [http://www.discogs.com/release/651575 The Grey Album] onDiscogs
* [http://www.greytuesday.org/ Grey Tuesday]
* [http://www.jayzconstructionset.com/ The Jay-Z Construction Set]
* [http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1485693/20040311/jay_z.jhtml?headlines=true/ Grey Album Producer Danger Mouse Explains How He Did It]
* [http://www.downhillbattle.org/ Downhill Battle] , the group that organized Grey Tuesday
* [http://www.waxy.org/archive/2004/02/11/danger_m.shtml Cease and desist letter from EMI #1]
* [http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue9_10/howard/index.html 'Grey Tuesday, online cultural activism and the mash–up of music and politics'] by Sam Howard-Spink, "First Monday", volume 9, number 10 (October 2004)
* [http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2004/02/10/jay_z_the_beatles_meet_in_grey_area/ The Boston Globe Grey Album Review]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zJqihkLcGc The Grey Video on YouTube]
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