Jay-Z is Dead Review

 (photo credit to Jay-Z.com)

The dream of dream mashups has arrived! I recently discovered the Spinjunkies project sampling music of the Grateful Dead with Jay-Z's black album called Jay-Z's DEAD!.  Here is a list of the song pairings:

1. Encore/Friend of the Devil
2. 99 Problems/Scarlet Begonias
3. Dirt off Your Shoulder/Fire on the Mountain
4. December 4/Dark Star
5. What More Can I Say/Shakedown Street
6. My First Song/New Minglewood Blues
7. Lucifer/Help on the Way
8. Change Clothes/Slipknot
9. Interlude/Franklin's Tower
10. Allure/St. Stephen
11. Justify My Thug/??
12. Moment of Clarity/The Music Never Stopped
13. Threat/Candy Man

Some of the songs really work great while others crash and burn. The pairings are all smart and work over the versus of Jay-Z's flow. Problems arise in those of Jay-Z's songs that have melodic components including background singers. Encore and What More Can I Say go from incredibly pleasing to horrifying when Jay-Z's backing vocalists clash terribly with the underlying chords of the Grateful Dead. It's unfortunate that the Spinjunkies didn't take the time to use a pitch correcting software program to bring Jay-Z's tunes in sync with the Dead.

Among the best tracks are December 4, 99 Problems, and Moment of Clarity . On Lucifer, the Spinjunkies chose a great version of Help on the Way that really puts Jerry Garcia's dancing guitar riffs up front with Jay-Z's rap. It feels as if the guitar was recorded specifically for the track, as Jerry and Jay-Z playfully trade flows and showcase their respective mastery of skills. The best part about this segment of the album is that the Spinjunkies knew enough about the Dead to keep the classic fan favorite Help on the Way-->Slipknot-->Franklin's Tower progression. Unfortunately Slipknot presents a recurring clashing sound problem where Jay-Z's backup singers holler "change clothes." Dead-heads will be pleased however to hear Phil Lesh's bouncing bass line rumble through this tune.

This man is Grateful to have this mashup as it combines two of my favorite artists.  Because the Spinjunkies missed on a few tracks (where easy solutions exist to fix the problems) this album is more of a mediocre/guilty pleasure.  There are definitely 4-5 tracks that I will return to in the future, the rest is an afterthought once the thrill of figuring out which songs are mixed together passes.

Note that the Spinjunkies have done other mashups with Jay-Z's black album, including Jay-Z Who? (you guessed it, putting Jay-Z with music of The Who).  Check them all out at www.spinjunkies.com