#396 Wugazi - 13 Chambers

Slate, of all places, had an article that mentioned this (free!) album, seems promising.

I used to bristle when people would talk about Girl Talk making mashups: for a lot of people the term evokes taking two songs and combining them, which has historically been pretty boring, and fails to improve on either of the original tracks (I'm looking at you Grey Album). I much prefer the ADDJ mashup that revels in transitions, tripleups, and party dynamics for energy.

What we have here is the 2-track approach, taking (as you probably guessed by now) 1 each of a Wu Tang song and a Fugazi song. But in this case, it actually works. The two bands are a good match: Wu Tang is a diverse group that mixes bobbing energy and tension, and the same goes for Fugazi on each count: menace is matched with frayed guitars, clean riffs with hopscotch ryhme lines. And most importantly, the overall structure is restless and exciting - there may only be two tracks per track, but each is full of builds, drops, twists and surprises.

While it lacks some of the ADDJ cotton candy constant delight, it works as a nice piece of rock rap done right, full of frustration and release. Probably my favorite 2-track mashup album I've heard 4/5

You might like this if: you like hooks and melodies under your rap and want something to bob your head to.