Despite it being a very niche musical genre among DJs and EDM artists, there is actually a very active mashup community creating new arrangements.  We follow a number of notable creators to get inspiration for new ideas, but if you asked any of them, chances are good that they would note Danger Mouse’s The Grey Album among their key influences or introduction to the concept.

While there were certainly genre-based “mashups” ahead of it’s 2004 release, the mix of Jay-Z’s The Black Album with The Beatles’ White Album gained huge notoriety not only in how well it was done, but how controversial it was when the surviving members of The Beatles and Jay-Z endorsed it despite EMI’s attempts at pulling it off the web.

Mashups were born out of the concept of early hip-hop production pulling samples of material from other albums (or smashing together two genres, a la Walk This Way) and remixes, so it was inevitable that something like The Grey Album was bound to eventually hit the mainstream.  Since then, it has been cited in challenging copyright laws while helping spread the mashup genre to a much larger audience.

The Grey Album (Jay-Z vs The Beatles)