The Black Keys go hip-hop,again

Fri 2nd Sep, 2011 in International News

They still haven’t announced a return trip to Australia to make up for their cancelled Big Day Out tour, but The Black Keys have announced the guest list for the follow up to their 2009 collaboration with hip-hop producer Damon Dash, BlakRoc.

Although the guest list for BlacRoc2 isn’t quite as impressive as the first BlakRoc album, which featured vocals from Mos Def, Q-Tip, RZA, Raekwon, Ludacris, Pharoahe Monch, the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard and more, we can still look forward to hearing collaborations with Talib Kweli, Curren$y, Wiz Khalifa, The Cool Kids, Jay Electronica, U-God, Jim Jones, OC and Sean Price. We assume that the only reason they didn’t invite Shaggy 2 Dope and Violent J from the Insane Clown Posse to rap on the record was to avoid bringing up those old Jack White comparisons again.

The Black Keys have also recently completed recording the follow-up to Brothers, with Danger Mouse again handling the production duties. Singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach recently told Spin that “The new album doesn’t sound like Brothers. It doesn’t have that open soul feel to it. It’s way more driving and the tempos are really fast.” Auerbach has also been keeping busy by producing albums from Texas rockers Hacienda, New Orleans legend Dr. John and garage rockers The Growlers.