Danger Mouse & Black Thought Cheat Codes LP

Consequence Top 50 Albums of 2022 - Rated 32/50!
BrooklynVegan 30 Best Rap Albums of 2022 - Rated 21/30!

Finally putting an end to years of swirling rumors and speculation, the collaboration is now officially announced: Danger Mouse & Black Thought bring us their debut album, Cheat Codes.

The natural chemistry between Brian (Danger Mouse) and Tariq (Black Thought) comes through in the ease with which the artist and listener move through this album. Moreover, it's an album untethered to any genre, era or trend - uncategorizable and timeless. It is the sound of the pair observing their own culture and asking questions they still may not have the answers to.

Brian Burton (AKA one half of Gnarls Barkley, Broken Bells, and Karen O & Danger Mouse - and universally regarded as the most versatile producer in modern music) has found a formidable new partner in the incomparably prolific rapper Tariq Trotter - rapper, MC & co-founder of The Roots, film and theater actor, producer, writer or, as Hypebeast sums up: "One of the best lyricists in hip-hop history."

Returning to sample-based production, Danger Mouse favors '60s and '70s psych, prog, and soul recordings that are moody, trippy, and sometimes eerie. The crisp if soot-coated drums, smeared strings, moaning organs, and gnarled guitars are all very compatible with Thought, who scythes through it all with unparalleled wordplay delivered with surgical precision.

Danger Mouse, who hadn't done a rap album since his classic Beatles/Jay-Z mashup The Grey Album, brings his distinct, crackling, sample-based psychedelic soul to the table, and Black Thought continues the hot streak he's been on since launching his solo career in 2018, reaffirming himself as one of the best rappers on the planet. Black Thought and Danger Mouse are both timeless old souls, and they sound as great together in 2022 as they would have in 2006. Even 30 years into his career, Black Thought still out-raps just about anyone he gets on a track with, but Cheat Codes puts him up against a slew of fellow greats (including Joey Bada$$, A$AP Rocky, Run the Jewels, Conway the Machine, Raekwon, and the late MF DOOM), and everyone rises to the occasion.