Blakroc - Blakroc
By Nick Manteris · 0 Comments · Leave a Comment
Rock rap was certainly thrust into the mainstream when Run DMC teamed up with Aerosmith for “Walk This Way,” but even Blondie’s “Rapture” hinted at the eventual fusion of rap and rock. In the next decade, The Beastie Boys, Rage Against the Machine and Kid Rock all made significant contributions to the genre and more recently artists like Linkin Park and the Street Sweeper Social Club have produced some notable entries. The newest arrival at the party is Blakroc, a collaboration that combines the blues-rock of The Black Keys with a number of hip-hop and R&B artists.
Ludacris teams up with Ol' Dirty Bastard (from beyond the grave) on “Coochie,” a song that sounds like the sequel to "What's Your Fantasy." The digital release of this album – which actually flows better because of its completely reordered tracklisting – conspicuously does not contain this song, for reasons unknown. The score for this album would have been 76% if they had left off the subpar tracks “On the Vista” and “Hope You’re Happy” as well as the worst song on this collection, “Tellin’ Me Things.” The Jay-Z sound-alike NOE appears on two songs, “Hard Times” and “Done Did It,” and the former is one of the best tracks on Blakroc. The other highlight of the album is Nicole Wray’s “Why Can’t I Forget Him” and everything else is just average.
- Score
- 60%
When it works, it works surprisingly well…and when it doesn’t, it’s just about what you would expect from such an unlikely musical union. Fusing music genres is a difficult proposition at best and Blakroc performs admirably under the circumstances. Hopefully, they will get enough of a positive response to warrant another album.
