Danger Mouse and Black Thought

Danger Mouse and Black Thought have announced that they’ll be dropping a collaborative album this summer.

Set to be released on August 12 via BMG, ‘Cheat Codes’ is Danger Mouse’s first hip-hop full-length since his ‘DANGERDOOM’ collaboration with the late MF DOOM which was released back in October 2005.

It follows Black Thought’s pioneering output with legendary Philadelphia group The Roots and his critically acclaimed solo trilogy, ‘Streams Of Thought’ – the third volume of which was released in 2020.

‘Cheat Codes’ – which was initially rumoured to be called ‘Dangerous Thoughts’ – is something that the pair began the initial idea for “maybe 13 or 14 years ago”, Black Thought revealed when he first teased the project in an interview back in 2020.

“It’s a feel-good record,” he said. “It’s a record for people who got into hip-hop and sort of evolved at the same period of time that we did. We’re the elder statesmen at this point, so I feel like this record is reflective of that too.”

Black Thought added that the album – which features; A$AP Rocky, Run The Jewels, MF DOOM, Michael Kiwanuka, Kid Sister, Joey Bada$$, Russ, Raekwon, Conway The Machine and more – is “a return for [Danger Mouse] to hip-hop and to sampling in this way”.

The announcement comes alongside the album’s first single, ‘No Gold Teeth’, a razor-sharp cut that hears Black Thought deliver a lyrical clinic over Danger Mouse’s dizzying backdrop.

You can watch the song’s hypnotic video, directed by UNCANNY, the UK-based creative duo of George Muncey and Elliot Elder, above.

Danger Mouse & Black Thought ‘Cheat Codes’ album tracklist:

01. ‘Sometimes’
02. ‘Cheat Codes’
03. ‘The Darkest Part’ (feat. Raekwon & Kid Sister)
04. ‘No Gold Teeth’
05. ‘Because’ (feat. Joey Bada$$, Russ & Dylan Cartlidge)
06. ‘Belize’ (feat. MF DOOM)
07. ‘Aquamarine’ (feat. Michael Kiwanuka)
08. ‘Identical Deaths’
09. ‘Strangers’ (feat. A$AP Rocky & Run The Jewels)
10. ‘Close To Famous’
11. ‘Saltwater’ (feat. Conway the Machine)
12. ‘Voilas & Lupita’

Meanwhile, it’s been revealed that the Harlem Cultural Festival – the setting of Roots drummer Questlove’s decorated documentary Summer Of Soul – will be revived and reimagined as the Harlem Festival of Culture in 2023.

The Harlem Festival of Culture will be an annual affair kicking off in the summer of 2023. It will take place at Marcus Garvey Park, the same site that hosted the original 1969 festival that was the subject of Questlove’s film. The park was called Mount Morris Park in 1969 and received a change in name in 1973.

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