Back in June, Dipset’s own Jim Jones Twittered an ominous message: “I did some dope music with black keys and mos def last night, def a good rock n roll experience.” Come again? It was beyond my imagination that Jones and Mos Def could find common ground to collaborate on a track, let alone over some grimy rock courtesy of The Black Keys. Credit for this oddball pairing is due to former Roc-a Fella CEO Dame Dash, who enlisted the band to work with Jones on a new project for his Splash Records start up. After stumbled across the session while recording in the same studio, Mos Def insisted he be included on the track. Once word got around, a slew of top tier MCs came out of the woodworks to contribute to the project, including Ludacris, Q-Tip, The RZA, Raekwon, and a posthumous verse from Ol’ Dirty Bastard.
Recorded in the short span of 11 days, Blakroc is a near perfect marriage of hard hitting rhymes and simmering blues that avoids the shortcomings of most previous attempts to bridge the genres. The album has an air of inevitability. After all, for years hip-hop has been sampling the same dirty blues that heavily influence the Black Key’s sound. Mos Def previously attempted to marry the two sounds on 2004’s The New Danger and 2006’s True Magic. The execution here feels more natural and satisfying thanks to production by The Black Keys. It feels like a logical progression for the hip-hop genre, loosing the samples but keeping the groove heavy foundation in tact.
Standout tracks include the album opener “Coochie”, an infectious beat which finds Ludacris trading bars with the late ODB on the familiar topic of being addicted to love. Despite being fairly by the numbers, it manages to shine thanks to a beat that perfectly showcases the veteran MCs. Raekwon eschews song structure completely on the dizzying “Stay Off The F#cking Flowers”. While weaving a familiar narrative on his favorite topic (selling coke), he rides a beat that never comes full circle, but instead tumbles around in circles like a Dilla beat stuck in a washing machine. Honorable mention is due to Nikki Wray, a former Roc-a-Fella artist who has sat on the shelf since her 1998 debut “Make It Hot”. Wray provides the hooks on 3 tracks including the stellar “Hope You’re Happy”, but it’s her solo feature on “Can’t Forget About Him” where she teaches a lesson on how to get down with the Black Key’s vibe.
At two tracks a piece, both Jones and Mos Def show up with the weakest offerings of the bunch. Jones is his usual bonehead self and apparently no one remembered to tell Mos to drop the desperate crooning and MFing rap already. That said, neither of these dummies are enough to sink such a strong ship. Everyone from The RZA to newcomer NOE delivers above average verses here. While “Blakroc” may not appeal to the Lil Wayne or Rihanna crowd, expect this album to become a closet favorite of hipsters and backpackers everywhere.
Mitch Davis’s one-man band 
Orba Squara’s album “The Trouble With Flying” is simplistic, soft, and somewhat childlike. In “Treasure Map,” Davis narrates a fairytale journey visiting mermaids, leprechauns, and unicorns. “Millionaires,” which features the dainty clinking of a glockenspiel, brought back strong imagery from the nursery rhyme “Mama’s Gonna Buy You A Mockingbird.” The one track that listeners might be tempted to download is the album’s single, “The Trouble With Flying,” which features 1980’s rock musician Billy Squier. A strange collaboration, but it works here. The unique and bluesy sound comes from a viola de terra (a Portuguese instrument similar to a guitar but with 15 strings,) that Davis plays in a non-traditional but funky, cool way (Billboard).