The New Masters of Mash Up?

I’m not a big fan of the radio. Honestly, I could do without overplayed music and lame Wal-mart pop tunes being shoved into my ears so the only time I ever listen to it is when I’m at work and even then it’s only when I can’t turn if off because my idiot boss is around. I like music to sound unique and interesting, which is why I really like remixes and mash-ups.

Mash-up refers to practice of combining two songs into one, which sometimes results in twice the awesome and sometimes in a massive failure to get booties shaking. This particular style really hit mainstream a couple years ago when Jay-Z and Linkin Park came together to make Collision Course which combined Jay’s Black Album with Linkin Park hits. The result sold millions since while Jay-Z’s beats were already hot, they sound incendiary next to Linkin Park’s pure anger and yelling.

However, for me, the album that I think is a true mash-up masterpiece is Danger Mouse’s The Grey Album which also featured Jay-Z’s Black Album but remixed with The Beatles White Album. The combination is about as good as a remix gets regardless of what P. Diddly or Jermaine Dupri will tell you.

A site called The Hood Internet caught my eye when I was looking around for remixes recently. Like the combination of The Beatles and Jay-Z, many of the collaborations are between artists you wouldn’t expect to work well together. For example, Feist and Lloyd. Lloyd had a “hit” this year with Get It Shawty, which I thought was horribly stupid song but mixed with Feist’s My Moon, My Man, it suddenly becomes…interesting. Same goes for UNK’s Walk It Out, which I thought was generic at best but when mixed with one of my favorite artists, LCD Soundsystem, it turns into three minutes of awesome. Heck, there’s even a mashed-up Photoshop picture of the artists in each song.

There are some several misses from The Hood Internet since…well, not every song fits perfectly with every other and sometimes you need to slow some down or speed them up (which they haven’t bothered with it looks like) but for the most part, the music here is fantastic. Check out Daft Punk X Amerie and all the songs with The Clipse if you’re interested. Oh and Mims’ This Is Why I’m Hot sounds only half as retarded when it’s mixed with…Blue Oyster Cult (the MORE COWBELL! band).

Lots of the styles are very different with artists in indie rock, hip hop, electronica and dance featured but either way, it’s way more interesting than any radio station.

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