Black Thought and Danger Mouse's 'Cheat Codes' Will Make Old-School Heads Feel Seen

Black Thought stands as one of rap'southward nigh lauded wordsmiths. Danger Mouse has crafted disparate sonic worlds on acclaimed collaborative projects with MF DOOM (DANGERDOOM), Cee-Lo Greenish (Gnarls Barkley), The Shins' James Mercer (Broken Bells), and Sparklehorse (Dark Dark of the Soul), among many others. With their just-released Crook Codes album, the progressive pair rips through a sonically various and lyrically robust set that features standout collaborations with Raekwon ("The Darkest Place"), A$AP Rocky and Run the Jewels ("Strangers"), the late MF DOOM ("Belize"), and Joey Bada$$, Russ, and Dylan Cartlidge ("Considering").

Merely make no mistake—Cheat Codes shines because of Black Thought'south dense yet lively rhymes jam-packed with clever cultural references and Danger Mouse'due south anarchistic mode of cobbling together unlikely sonics into a mesmerizing audible elixir. In our Q&A, Danger Mouse and Blackness Thought detail the construction of innovative beats and next-level rhymes that populate their debut collaborative total-length.

Blackness Idea, I really enjoyed your reference to Public Enemy's "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos" on "The Darkest Place." Why did yous cull to use it?

Black Thought: Chuck D has been a huge influence on me lyrically, on my pen. Public Enemy influenced The Roots a great deal. Whenever I take an opportunity to make any sort of subtle nod to a lyric, or namedrop a tune, or do anything that could potentially send folks to Google or rekindle an awareness of ane of my heroes, that'south what I get with. Then the thought was to pay homage to Chuck D and to Public Enemy. It was the only lyric that made perfect sense, likewise.

"Whenever I take an opportunity to make any sort of subtle nod to a lyric, or namedrop a tune, or do anything that could potentially send folks to Google or rekindle an sensation of ane of my heroes, that'due south what I get with."
— Blackness Idea

"The Darkest Place" ironically seems to take one of the brighter sounding beats on Cheat Codes . Danger Mouse, how did you go about constructing the song and settling on the vocal title?

Danger Mouse: That song was one of the first things we'd done, simply it sounded very different. The drums were very different. Then when we got toward the cease of the record, we were starting to look for guests and nosotros got Raekwon on in that location. I had also been working on the vocal chorus part with Inflow, who I worked with on the Michael Kiwanuka records I've produced. So we got Kid Sis to do information technology. In one case all these elements started getting added to information technology, I felt like the drums weren't correct. I started trying to practise different beats and everything, but I as well happened to be working with a friend of mine, this really nifty musician named Sam Cohen, who decided to practice some drum stuff, besides. We wound upwardly chopping upwardly a drum function that he did with this and it fit really well. And then it went through a lot. Nosotros did that a lot on this album—we really kept refining the songs until we got them equally good equally we could. Nosotros'd start with a piffling bit of a sketch then we just kept going and going and going.

On the song "Cheat Codes," Blackness Thought, you mention people gambling with their lives like Pete Rose. What have yous noticed that makes it and so people are willing to gamble with their life in such a routine manner?

Blackness Thought: I'thou talking about the take a chance that is beingness. As a Black man in America, your life is a gamble. I don't think it's every bit much about my travels and those experiences as it is about my American experience that I'm speaking to. I know at that place's and so many people who've shared a similar experience, and so I'one thousand speaking to those people. If you know, yous know. Those of usa who have gambled with our lives like Pete Rose on the daily, they get it.

On "Because," I imagine some people might call back Dylan Cartlidge'southward vocals are a sample. Danger Mouse, how practise you construct something to audio that way?

Danger Mouse: When something is a sample and comes from a dissimilar fourth dimension menstruation, in that location's some altitude to it and information technology feels nearly magical. Dylan and I were messing around and he sang so crazy that you couldn't really understand a lot of it. But that part of information technology is what made it feel similar it had distance, equally well. The way he sings, and the tone of his vox, information technology really does sound like information technology'southward from a different fourth dimension—especially when information technology was mixed with an old sample. It'southward almost like he was at that place recording with [the original recording]. It was a nice magic moment that happened out of all the stuff nosotros did for that song. That was the only matter we kept, and it was like a asset.

On "Belize," Black Idea, I appreciated how you were saying you're a product of The Concluding Poets and The Watts Prophets. What made you desire to combine those two there?

Black Thought: I feel The Watts Prophets were essentially the Due west Declension version of The Last Poets. I feel like they're overlooked oftentimes. But for me, they were equally every bit influential. And then I wanted to speak to that. They're both that from which we came. Their fine art, their poetry, the bulletin is in our DNA, directly and indirectly. It'due south something I've e'er embraced.

"We really kept refining the songs until we got them as skilful as nosotros could. We'd start with a little fleck of a sketch and then nosotros just kept going and going and going."
— Danger Mouse

Also on "Belize," I appreciated when DOOM says how Danger volition make you groove off a glitch. Danger Mouse, do you remember what made him say that?

Danger Mouse: When nosotros were working together, most of the stuff I was doing was sample-based. He would have a lot of comments on the kinds of stuff I chose to sample, especially dorsum in the 24-hour interval. I don't recall I was using the traditional kind of jazz or erstwhile R&B records. I always constitute things that were just a piffling flake dissimilar and strange, and he would comment on it. And then I estimate he was figuring that I can brand something out of anything. I obviously took information technology as a compliment. Information technology'southward squeamish to have that compliment on record, and then I'll take it.

On "Aquamarine," Black Thought, what makes you lot say that yous were born to be a instructor and should exist studied in Berkeley and Juilliard?

Black Idea: My proper name is Tariq, which translates to "guiding light," "morning time star," "messenger," "teacher." I was speaking to the Arabic meaning of my name. But equally far as my words and the breadth of my work existence on par with any other slap-up American writer, American poet, I call back it's just a matter of fact. When my lyrics have been taught or studied in any school setting, information technology's been win-win. So I retrieve more than of that should happen. I think more of it is definitely gonna take place. FL

Source: https://floodmagazine.com/114918/danger-mouse-black-thought-in-convo/

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