This week, I’m digging into hip-hop, and one of the greatest collaborations to ever come from the genre. It’s a collaboration between two legends in their respected disciplines of production and rap: Danger Mouse and Black Thought. Their album Cheat Codes was released in 2022, but feels like it could have come straight out of the 1990s, or any of the 30 years between.
Danger Mouse is a six-time Grammy Award winning and 22-time Grammy-nominated producer and musician, whose work spans indie-rock, electronica, and pop, alongside hip-hop. Having received acclaim for his phenomenal mash-up, The Grey Album, which collided Jay-Z with the Beatles, Danger Mouse ended up one of the most in demand producers going, working with everyone from Gorillaz to U2, and the Black Keys to Adele.
Black Thought is perhaps best known as frontman and co-founder of illustrious hip hop group the Roots alongside drummer Questlove, as well as being involved in a variety of both musical and non-musical projects throughout his career. Widely acknowledged as one of the best MCs in the game, Black Thought’s lyrical prowess, technical ability, and live performances have made him one of the most influential rappers over the last 30+ years, and he brings that in abundance to Cheat Codes.
Cheat Codes was a long awaited collaboration; the pair first started working together in 2005 on a project called Dangerous Thoughts. This project never reached completion. They reconnected a decade later, and Cheat Codes was born, leading to perhaps my only gripe with this album – that the original name didn’t stick.
Right from the off, Danger Mouse’s production is sublime. Obscure, crackling samples are used magnificently to create a soundscape which sounds like golden era 90s hip-hop, yet with NY boom-bap and soulful scenes weaving in and out of one another. It’s remarkable to think that this was Danger Mouse’s first hip-hop album since his 2005 collaboration with MF DOOM on The Mouse and the Mask. The backings provided on Cheat Codes are the perfect canvas for Black Thought to wrap his words around. And that he does.
On the other end of the sonic spectrum, Black Thought delivers some of the sharpest verses in hip hop throughout Cheat Codes, and he complements Danger Mouse perfectly. Killer lines tackle socio-economics and conscious politics in a blisteringly fun fashion. As if Black Thought wasn’t enough, features from all walks of hip-hop (and more) bring the album to life: Wu-Tang Clan alumni and acclaimed solo rapper Raekwon; rapper, singer and Sault member Kid Sister; modern day (and one of the record’s youngest featured artists) hip hop icon Joey Bada$$; independent Atlanta-heralding rapper Russ; alternative rapper and multi-instrumentalist Dylan Cartlidge; the legendary, late, great MF DOOM; soul singer Michael Kiwanuka; another modern day heavyweight in A$AP Rocky; hip hop superduo Run the Jewels; and MC Conway the Machine all embellish this record, and solidify it as an all timer.
Despite, on paper, being the work of a rapper and a producer (as hip-hop albums generally are) Cheat Codes is a million times more than the sum of its parts. That is what sets it apart. It’s a match made in hip hop heaven. On a project almost 20 years in the making – from two of the greatest to ever do it – the stakes for such a project were always high. Yet through masterful phonic crafting, powerful production, and stellar rapping, Cheat Codes is everything it promises and more.
Waxing Lyrical 