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''The Grey Album'' was a controversial album by Danger Mouse released in 2004 (see 2004 In Music ). It uses an Acappella version of rapper Jay-Z 's '' Black Album '' and couples it with instrumentals created from a multitude of unauthorized Samples from The Beatles ' '' White Album ''. OVERVIEW The album, which Danger Mouse released in limited quantities to a few outlets, created a massive amount of controversy when EMI , the ''White Album'''s copyright holder, ordered Danger Mouse and retailers carrying the album to cease distribution of the album. While Mixtapes and other recordings containing unauthorized samples and copies of songs are sold and distributed regularly unnoticed by Record Labels that own the recordings, the amount of attention ''The Grey Album'' received caused EMI to act. Danger Mouse never asked permission to use the Beatles' material, and intended to fly under the radar with a limited production run of 3,000 copies. Jay-Z's material, on the other hand, was commercially released in Acappella form. Although the work was copyrighted, it was released for the implicit purpose of encouraging Mash-ups and Mixes . EMI's response to the album caused Downhill Battle , an activist group seeking to restructure the music industry, to start and lead a massive Internet -based protest dubbed Grey Tuesday , to express the opinion that sampling is Fair Use and that a Statutory License should be provided in the same manner as if a given song had been covered. Although the album was already well-known among hip-hop and mash-up afficionados, the album quickly became extremely popular and well-distributed over the Internet because of the surrounding publicity. It also came to the attention of the critical establishment; It received a very positive write-up in the February 9 , 2004 issue of '' The New Yorker '' and was named the ''Best of 2004'' in the category music by '' Entertainment Weekly ''. '' The Village Voice '''s annual Pazz And Jop critics poll ranked the album 10th for 2004 . {Link without Title} The Grey Album is one of many ''Black Album'' remix albums spurred by Jay-Z's release of ''The Black Album'' acapellas. Producers Kno (from the Cunninlynguists ) and Kevin Brown earlier had released their own color-themed remix albums, titled ''The White Albulum'' and ''The Brown Album'' respectively. The Internet distribution of ''The Grey Album'' spurred a series of copycat DJs and amateur mash-up artists to mix the acappella version of the ''Black Album'' with a variety of other artists, including Weezer , Pavement , Prince , Metallica , Sin City , & Wu-Tang Clan . The promotional artwork for the album was done by Justin Hampton . TRACK LISTING #"Public Service Announcement" - 2:45
#"What More Can I Say" - 4:25
#"Encore" - 2:40
#"December 4th" - 3:34
#"99 Problems" - 4:06
#"Dirt Off Your Shoulder" - 3:59
#"Moment Of Clarity" - 4:00
#"Change Clothes" - 4:04
#"Allure" - 4:06
#"Justify My Thug" - 4:12
#"Lucifer 9 (Interlude)" - 2:01
#"My 1st Song" - 4:44
THE GREY VIDEO ''The Grey Video'' is a Music Video made in the fall of 2004 by directing team Ramon & Pedro to promote the single "Encore" from ''The Grey Album''. The video, which is entirely in black and white, features clips from The Beatles ' movie A Hard Day's Night , and footage from a Jay-Z performance. It uses new footage and Computer Generated Imagery to create scenes that involve John Lennon Breakdancing and Ringo Starr Scratching . It begins with The Beatles performing before cameras and a live audience. Ringo Starr begins to drum to the 1:00 to 1:08 segment of " Glass Onion ". John Lennon begins to sing while George Harrison and Paul McCartney nod their heads to the beat. After a few moments, the monitors in the director's booth begin to flicker, showing scenes of Jay-Z rapping "Encore" and the lyrics of the chorus begin to show behind group. Ringo's drum kit becomes a turntable and he begins to scratch while John continues to sing "Oh yeah!" as sampled from " Glass Onion ." As "Encore" moves into the second verse, the beat changes to a sample of " Savoy Truffle ". A John Lennon Body Double starts to breakdance, leading to a headspin. Paul and George are replaced by two dancers. "John" backflips off the screen, flinging his wig off. Ringo walks off and the lights fade to black. The video is not available commercially, but has became popular over the Internet . Due to the legal issues surrounding the use of copyrighted material, the video is shown with the disclaimer that it was made for experimental purposes only. GREY TUESDAY CONTROVERSY Grey Tuesday was a day of coordinated Electronic Civil Disobedience on February 24 , 2004 . Lead by Downhill Battle , on this day, participating websites posted copies of Danger Mouse 's '' The Grey Album '' for free download on their sites for 24 hours in protest of EMI's attempts to prevent any distribution of this unlicensed work. This protest was provoked by the opinion that the sampling is Fair Use and that a Statutory License should be provided in the same manner as if a song had been covered. Supporters of the day claim that it signals a refusal by a vocal section of Internet Society to let major label Lawyers control musical creativity and specifically Sampling . Sampling in music has been commonplace since the late 1980s , an early pioneering work was The Beastie Boys groundbreaking album '' Paul's Boutique '' in 1989 which used samples from sources as diverse as Johnny Cash , Bob Marley and The Beatles - the creators of the unlicensed music sampled on ''The Grey Album''. Hundreds of Website s participated and roughly 170 hosted the album for download. The protest made the ''Grey Album'' the number one album in the United States on the 24th, with over 100,000 copies being downloaded on that day alone (more than 1 million individual tracks). The legal repurcussions of the protest were minimal; a number of the participants received Cease And Desist letters from EMI, but no charges were filed in connection with the event. SEE ALSO REFERENCESS |
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