Selected tracks now playing on Phawker Radio! Complete download HERE.
Yes the pun is painful — Jay-Z + Radiohead = Jaydiohead, DUH! — and at this late date, the mash-up is best left to the pros — people like Girl Talk and, well, pretty much just Girl Talk. With the last coupla years having seen a deluge of fuck-and-run digital smashmouth, patience for the mash-up to mature as an art form is running thin. Pitchfork has already dismissed this with one of their patented I-didn’t-really-listen-to-it-but-this-vague-dis-should-cover-my-ass kiss-offs, but we beg to differ. Granted, we haven’t actually made it to the end of a mash-up since, like, The Grey Album, which was the last time Jay-Z died and went to White Album heaven. But this shit is on, yo. Not sure if it’s because Radiohead makes bangin’ hip-hop-ready rock music or because Jay-Z’s get-fresh flow sounds as at home in a badass rock mix as it does atop a def jam loop, although the answer is probably ‘a little of both.’ Either way, this works — even if “99 Problems” chocolate will never sound better than when it’s in “Helter Skelter”‘s peanut butter. To the Pitchfork dude: We feel sorry for ya, son. Got 99 problems, but bitchin’ about this ain’t one.