GWHH Review: Blackroc 'Self Titled'

Folks seem endlessly surprised that the Black Keys are involved with hip hop in anyway. But if you're from Akron and play music, there's probably not too much else to do around town between the ages of 15 and 20 other than listen to records. So while, Damon Dash hadn't heard of the Ohio based blues and rock group until recently, there's really no way that guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney weren't aware of the Roc-A-Fella affiliated business man and the records that he had a hand in bringing to the masses.

After rounding up a spate of high level contributors and settling on the name Blakroc, all involved took turns running up on the Keys in a studio setting and spent some quality time with the duo.

Auerbach and Carney contributed some funky and more stripped down backing than anyone could have really guessed. And on "Dollaz & Sense," which features Pharoahe Monch and the RZA, the Keys turn in only a basic drum pattern and an ethereal bit of guitar playing as the two emcees talk about intelligence and soul. There's a huge break towards the end of the track taking focus away from the previous verses and even the hook. In the song's construction, though, layers of genres are jig-sawed together to create something beyond what listeners may have expected.

Nicole Wray crops up more frequently on this self titled release than any other contributor while singing hooks and the like, but Mos Def works on two separate tracks, as does the aforementioned RZA. Mos, though, supplies something of a rhythmic spoken word set of verses during "On the Vista." The emcee's known for being one of the more literate and unique talents of the modern day rap cognoscenti. Surprisingly on Blakroc Mos is able to pretty easily surpass the vast majority of work from his own 2009 released The Ecstatic.

Despite the spate of highlights, the disc lacks coherence even as the Black Keys give up some consistent beats for everyone to make use of. It's not as if there's a clunker amongst the 11 tracks here, but there is something missing. Maybe listeners will find out what that is if there's a second installment in the Blakroc saga.

BUY: Blakroc: Self Titled

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~ Dave Cantor