Jay-Z and Radiohead Get the Mixtape Treatment

I don't know how badly I missed the boat on this one, but from the looks of it, this isn't too moldy. Not too long ago Minty Fresh Beats dropped a new mixtape entitled Jaydiohead featuring mashups of, you guessed it, Jay-Z and Radiohead. Look, I get that the title makes it clear what they're doing, but would a little originality have killed 'em? How about Black Rainbows? Hell, Kid Jay! But I'm here to critique the music, nothing else.

The mixtape focuses mostly on the later works of both artists (The Black Album and American Gangster for Jay-Z, OK Computer through In Rainbows for Radiohead), but takes the best selections from both and creates some wonderfully ingenious mashes. "No Karma" takes "Karma Police", arguably Radiohead's most recognizable track not named "Creep" and "No Hook", an abstract filler cut from American Gangster and gives the latter, well, a hook. The most impressive thing here is just how seamlessly everything fits in. Jay's raps and Thom Yorke's vocals on "Optimistic Moment" fit so organically that Yorke must be sitting in a room somewhere wondering why he didn't come up with this first. Admit it; no one reading this would have considered the riff from "Paranoid Android" having any similarities to that of "Dirt Off Your Shoulder". And yet when you listen, it's like the whole thing was somehow divinely planned out years ago, and us along with Minty Fresh Beats are just late to the party.

Overall the mix is brilliant. Even the mashups featuring songs I didn't really know work really well. Best of all, unlike other mixtapes that are best heard start to finish, Jaydiohead works just as well as singles as it does elsewhere. Think the Jay-Z/Linkin Park Collision Course project, just a bit more natural and focused.

Jaydiohead - No Karma

Pick up Jaydiohead here. (Thanks to A Future In Noise for posting this first)

==TJ==