Back in 2004, after Jay-Z released the complete set of acapellas for The Black Album, budding production auteur and soon-to-be household name Danger Mouse embarked on a project that would end up breathing new life into an old idea – as well as launch one of the most lucrative and varying careers in recent memory. Unquestionably the most infamous mash-up album ever (and arguably the only infamous mash-up album ever), The Grey Album – made up of instrumentals culled from White Album samples matched with Black Album vocals – gained notoriety for the controversy surrounding its release, the cleverness of its concept, and the sheer quality of the music: Danger Mouse’s “Helter Skelter”-sampling version of “99 Problems” is still the definitive version of the song.
Eight years later, engineer John Stewart has re-mastered the entire original release and offered it up, like Danger Mouse did for the original project, for free – cop the download here via mediafire or here via Stewart’s website and then watch an amazing experimental promotional clip for the original album (The Grey Video) down below.
