Danger Mouse

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• Genre: Indie Rap/Hip-Hop
• Hometown: New York
• Danger Mouse Website

About

Taking his name from a British cartoon from the 1980s, Danger Mouse was a respected but fairly obscure producer until a great idea and EMI lawyers made him an international superstar practically overnight. In late 2003, when Jay-Z released his supposed swan song The Black Album, he also put out an all-acapella version for budding beatmakers to work with. Several revamped editions followed, but none were as ingenious as Danger Mouse's. He basically rerecorded the entire album using nothing but samples from the Beatles' White Album as source material. He called it The Grey Album, and it sparked a deafening buzz, drooling critics, and a cease and desist letter from the suits at EMI. As a result of the controversy, Danger Mouse became a household name and got tons of press on outlets as big as MTV and CNN. Jay-Z himself was a fan, and his label Roc-A-Fella soon snapped up the young producer to contribute tracks to the new Beanie Sigel LP.

- Brolin Winning