Wu Tang vs. The Beatles

If you’re a fan of mash-ups then I have a treat for you. Beatmaster, Tom Caruana, has taken some Wu Tang acapellas and remixed them with Beatles songs or covers of Beatles songs. The album is pure genius.  The best mash-ups I’ve heard since Danger Mouse’s Grey Album, which mashes up Jay-Z’s Black Album, with The Beatles’ White Album.  Tom has put the entire album up for free download on Tea Sun Records.   He also just recently put up all of the instrumental tracks and radio edits.  Several of these remixes are just so completely perfect that it makes me think that this might be the original purpose of these tracks.  With all of the mash-up talent out there these days I am gonna hope that someone is listening and I’m putting in my request. I would like to see The Beach Boys remixed with either Beirut or Final Fantasy.  What mash-up project would you like to see happen?

A Lighter Shade of DOOM

When DOOM released Born Like This earlier this year, his first record in four years, the rapper formerly known as MF Doom dished on anarchy, violence and homophobia. In short, the project stunk of hatred and pessimism. Unexpected Guests, a collection of Born b-sides, remixes and other oddball tracks, couldn’t be more different. It’s shorter, more diverse and mercifully goofy.

Guests is structured as a scattershot mix tape, a medium that suits DOOM better than the full-length. Songs dissipate just as they break a sweat and give way to a B-movie sound clip or a wordless coda. The bombastic horn samples of Born Like This are mostly gone, replaced by jazzy keyboard lines (“Sorcerers”) and slow-motion upright bass (“Street Corners (DOOM Remix)”).

Even in its scathing political critiques, Born was far too stoned to deliver any affective social message, much less a coherent verse. Guests doesn’t even feign substance, with DOOM rhyming about everything from a pants-less Nancy Drew to the cleanliness of his metal mask.

This sense of flippancy pervades nearly every song, most enjoyably on the honky-tonk “Da Superfriendz,” which could have been the soundtrack to “Peanuts” if Charlie Brown grew up in a Long Island ghetto.

Speaking of “friendz,” there are too many cameos here to count. Most notable are J Dilla’s production on “Sniper Elite” and Ghostface Killah’s (rather lame) verses in “Angels.” DOOM’s throaty rasp is distinct but grating, and it’s a joy to hear such a communal record from such an eccentric character.

Of course, DOOM has never been consistently great, and Guests has its share of flubs. Tellingly, songs with longer run times are usually the weakest: “Project Jazz” proves hip-hop and smooth-jazz muzak an ill-advised combination, while “My Favorite Ladies” dips its toe in misogyny.

Conversely, Guests shines brightest in glimpses of rhythm and melody in condensed tracks like “Quite Buttery” and “Yikes.” DOOM and his contemporaries have a lot of interesting sonic ideas, but the rapper has learned (probably from Dilla’s Donuts) the value of scarcity and doesn’t allow these tunes to outstay their welcome.

The record is an adequate retrospective of DOOM’s career, showcasing his perverted-soul beats and his weirdo rhymes. DOOM always forgoes club-bangers in favor of head-scratchers like “Bell of Doom” or the whimsical “Black Gold,” which is why critics love him.

Unexpected Guests, like the rest of the rapper’s work, is special in its sense of adventure and expedition. The B-side wins again!

DOOM – Born Like This

There is no shortage of cynicism during an era as bleak as this one, and no one spills it quite like rapper/producer MF DOOM. The famously masked artist has changed his name again; it’s just DOOM now, and like the metal mask he performs under, the pseudonym is a nod to Marvel Comics baddie Dr. Doom. DOOM has always grunted nonsensical rhymes over shadowy beats, and this shtick has propelled him to the forefront of indie rap. He’s quickly become a poster child for Cartoon Network’s [adult swim], and his production has been recruited by big names like Ghostface Killah.

Unfortunately, the limelight can cripple growth. Born Like This, the artist’s first record in four years, is substandard. “Hefner please, lost the food and stew beef, new referees,” DOOM sputters on “Lightworks,” still sacrificing coherence for rhyme. “Supervillainz” finds the artist grunting over a whining organ, his flow weaker than ever. But even more troubling is the intensely homophobic “Batty Boyz,” in which DOOM derides a lifestyle “even the rats know is tacky.”

Nearly half of these songs clock in at less than two minutes, so while there are glimpses of the talent that put DOOM on the map, (the sober “Absolutely” and the J Dilla-produced “Gazzillion Ear”) Born Like This is mostly an undercooked dystopian skit. He’s got the political atheism of the Roots, but none of that group’s veiled sense of hope. Perhaps it’s fitting that “Cellz” samples Charles Bukowski, a poet equally entrenched in despair. But who needs another cynic?

DOOM – Absolutely