Marcy Projects And The Infinite Sadness Mashes Up Jay-Z’s Black Album With Smashing Pumpkins Tracks
One of the most memorable artifacts of ’00s mashup culture is The Grey Album, on which Danger Mouse — then a largely unknown rap producer with some meager critical buzz — replaced the music on Jay-Z’s freshly released The Black Album with samples from the Beatles’ iconic 1968 self-titled double LP, aka “The White Album.” The Black Album plus “The White Album” equals The Grey Album. You get it.
The Grey Album was good enough that I still prefer a few of its tracks to the Jay-Z originals. It’s also well-known enough that I’m surprised to see somebody else attempting a similar full-album remix project with Jay’s Black Album vocal tracks. Nonetheless, a Maine producer known as Spose has done just that.
As you might glean from the title, Marcy Projects And The Infinite Sadness finds Spose swapping out the original Black Album production for Smashing Pumpkins music. He has not limited himself to tracks from 1995’s Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness, though as a double-LP blockbuster that would certainly be a sensible analog for “The White Album.” Instead, Spose cherrypicked songs from various Pumpkins releases, resulting in combinations like “Public Service Announcement” backed by “Cherub Rock.” (It’s hard to beat Just Blaze’s production there, and indeed Spose has not beaten it.)
You can download the whole album for free in exchange for your email address, or just stream it via the album-length video below, where you’ll also find the tracklist.
TRACKLIST:
01 “Interlude / Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness”
02 “Change Clothes / I Am One”
03 “Public Service Announcement / Cherub Rock”
04 “Allure / Tonight, Tonight”
05 “Threat / Mayonaise”
06 “Encore / X.Y.U.”
07 “Moment of Clarity / Today”
08 “99 Problems / Porcelina of the Vast Oceans”
09 “What More Can I Say / Hummer”
10 “Justify My Thug / Ava Adore”
11 “Lucifer / The Aeroplane Flies High”
12 “Dirt Off Your Shoulder / Eye”
13 “December 4th / Heavy Metal Machine”
14 “My First Song / Marquis In Spades”