Danger Mouse & Black Thought - Cheat Codes

Album Review

Aug 15

Danger Mouse & Black Thought

Cheat Codes

It may have taken a decade to come to fruition, but Cheat Codes was worth the wait.

2006 was a busy year for Danger Mouse.

Fresh off the copyright headache of The Grey Album and 2005's hip-hop project DANGERDOOM, he then teamed up with CeeLo Green and dropped one of the biggest songs in the history of songs, "Crazy."

Around this time, Danger Mouse (Brian Burton) met one of his rap heroes in Tariq Trottier (Black Thought). They talked about collaboration. They even had an album name - Dangerous Thoughts.

But, as it tends to happen - life got in the way. Trottier took his band The Roots to late-night stardom, while Burton became a producing heavyweight, with credits on singles by The Black Keys, Beck, A$AP Rocky, Adele, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers (to name a few).

A decade or so later, the duo reconnected, finally finding time to put their original mutual vision together into a brand new album, Cheat Codes.

Cheat Codes is energetic and fresh - its organic feel breaths life into its listener's soul, forcing toe-tapping and head-nodding throughout.

The underrated Danger Mouse enlists the who's who of sharp lyricism on Cheat Codes - with Run the Jewels, Raekwon, Joey Bada$$, Conway the Machine, Michael Kiwanuka, and more all joining in.

His production is subtle as hell, letting the emcees shine. While he has largely stayed away from sampling since The Grey Album, you can practically taste the dust from old vinyl sleeves while listening to this record.

That said, the star of the show is Black Thought and his never-ending free-flowing rap. While his tenure with The Roots is impressive in its own right - Black Thought hadn't entirely built his own isolated pedestal of public appreciation before Cheat Codes.

His Streams of Thought series is a gateway to his talent but was largely too complicated and unfocused, which is where a great producer like Danger Mouse comes in, helping the talent stay focused.

This lyricism is as dense as ever, littering his lyrics with comparisons of himself to legends - Dick Gregory, Don Quixote, Sidney Poitier; he's focused on uniting his worldview with nods to the cultural icons that helped shape it.

The now 50-year-old Black Thought has been building a celebrated resume for years, but finally, Cheat Codes culminates his life's momentum into an album that plays to his strengths with a singular focus.

He is lyrically rigorous, although his flow doesn't often venture into different lanes of traffic. His best performances are those where he doesn't share the mic with others.

The album keeps giving, with helping after helping of infectious grooves, layers of soul, and perfect beats.

It breathes when needed, like on "Identical Deaths," where the second half rides into the packed "Strangers" like the calm before the storm.

Four minutes is hardly enough time for four profound lyricists to do their thing, and RTJ picks up the slack for an odd verse from ASAP. Like most tracks on Cheat Codes, the outro of "Strangers" lets the instrumentation shine and bleed into the next track.

Arguably the only track with a darker vibe is "Saltwater," which fittingly features Conway the Machine and his rugged style, although his verse is unfairly short. Black Thought isn't always painting a pretty picture. Still, the tracks he touches on this record are largely positive sounding instrumentally - it might have been an excellent opportunity to let him lean into something with more bite.

Here, on "Saltwater," is where he directly positions himself away from superficial rappers and equates himself to Dick Gregory, one of the few moments he acknowledges his own place in the musical landscape.

Of course, the tastiest treat on Cheat Codes comes from the posthumous "Belize" track featuring the late MF DOOM. To have these two talents together on one track is special, and DOOM slays it.

The most unbalanced decision of all might be the final track, "Violas and Lupitas," - which is a compact, but an anticlimactic end to such an energetic record, floating us away into melancholy with a complete lack of finality.

Incredibly, the album comes in at a svelte 38 minutes. It's surprising, as Cheat Codes is bursting with ideas, features, samples, and genuine wordsmith moments, that it feels much longer, much broader.

In the end, the partnership between Danger Mouse and Black Thought is poetry, checking all the right boxes for a summer hip-hop classic. It may have taken a decade to come together, but it was worth the wait in the end.