The Grey Album - History

History

Danger Mouse released The Grey Album in limited quantities to a few internet outlets. Due to the amount of attention the mashup received, EMI, copyright holder of The Beatles, ordered Danger Mouse and retailers carrying the album to cease distribution. Because of the overwhelming popularity of Danger Mouse's work this did not happen. Danger Mouse never asked permission to use The Beatles' material, and intended to produce a limited production run of 3,000 copies. Jay-Z's material, on the other hand, was commercially released in a cappella form. Although that work was copyrighted, it was released for the implicit purpose of encouraging mashups and remixes.

The album quickly became 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 album of 2004 by Entertainment Weekly. The Village Voice's annual Pazz and Jop critics poll ranked the album 10th for 2004.

The Grey Album is one of many The Black Album remix albums spurred by Jay-Z's release of the a cappellas. Producers Kno (from the Cunninlynguists) and Kev Brown earlier had released their own color-themed remix albums, titled The White Al-bu-lum and The Brown Album respectively. A Pete Rock remix of the album was circulated as well and released on Good Foot Records, but the album was actually a mash up with beats from his previously released PeteStrumentals album. The Internet distribution of The Grey Album spurred a series of DJs and amateur mashup artists to mix the a cappella version of The Black Album with a variety of other artists, including Weezer, Madlib, Pavement, Prince, Metallica, Radiohead, Modest Mouse, and Wu-Tang Clan.

Supplemental artwork was provided for later bootleg versions of the album by Justin Hampton after the initial release.