One of my favorite remixes is "99 Luft Problems." It's a mashup between "99 Problems" by Jay-Z and "99 Red Balloons" by Nena.
In November 2003, rapper Jay-Z released The Black Album. Along with the CD version, his record company also released an a capella version on vinyl to encourage DJs to remix his songs. In 2004, Danger Mouse infamously mashed this up with the Beatles' White Album.
A few days after the release of Danger Mouse's "Grey Album" a young indie-rocker named Mike from Philadelphia felt inspired to remix Jay-Z himself. Sticking with the colorful album theme, he mashed The Black Album with Weezer's eponymous debut known as "The Blue Album." The result: "The Black and Blue Album."
"99 Luft Problems" is not sampled from a Weezer song, but Mike nonetheless included it on his website as a bonus track to the Black and Blue Album. It is in my opinion the strongest, most danceable track on his site. It has a catchy chorus and a hilarious ending that I won't spoil for anybody.
The thing that amazes me most is that this "Mike" fellow is a nobody - he is not a Deejay. Through preexisting creations of the musical giants around him, he was able to create something new. According to his website, this was his only experience as a DJ - the two weeks spent making this album are his first two. I'm not going to try and say that every song is good, but I can listen to half of these songs and almost convince myself they were remixed by a veteran. I advise any Jay-Z or Weezer fans to take a listen and see what you think.
"Say It Ain't December 4th", "Encore For Wayne", and "Public Service Holiday" stand out as the best of Mike's Weezer remixes. On his website is an audio/video mashup " 99 Problems With Buddy Holly." This video is really cool, but the song is weaker than "99 Luft Problems." Check out jay-zeezer.com to download this free album, but you might not want to blast these tunes when Grandma is around if you know what I mean.
- Jordan Morsberger
2 comments:
I am a big fan of the black album by Jay-Z. I do remember a couple of months after the CD came out there were a bunch of remixes all throughout the internet. There are some really creative remixes all over the internet made by Dj's and also some regulare people. The fact that Jay-Z encouraged this was also good because most artist wouldnt.
Remixes involving The Black Album are always the best because he released all of his songs acapella after the album was released. He also didn't demand any royalties for the use of those songs so all of his songs can be used by anyone. More artists need to be like Jay-Z in letting people remix their stuff.
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