Danger Mouse & Black Thought: Cheat Codes

Cheat Codes is Danger Mouse's first hip-hop album in seventeen years - since his DangerDOOM collaboration with the late, great MF DOOM in 2005 - and Black Thought's only full-length collaboration beyond his breakthrough music in The Roots. On No Gold Teeth, Danger Mouse's soulful, freewheeling production serves as the perfect backdrop for Black Thought's metronomic, pin-sharp, chorus-free lyrical barrage. The result is a dizzying, exhilarating opening single from two of contemporary music's most respected artists. The natural chemistry between Brian (Danger Mouse) and Tariq (Black Thought) is evident in the ease with which artist and listener move through this album. Beyond that, it's an album that doesn't belong to any genre, era or trend - it's timeless and can't be categorized. It is the sound of the two of them observing their own culture and asking questions they may not yet have answers to. Brian Burton (also known as one half of Gnarls Barkley, Broken Bells, Karen O and Danger Mouse - and widely regarded as the most versatile producer in modern music) has found a formidable new partner in the incomparably prolific rapper Tariq Trotter - rapper, MC and co-founder of The Roots, film and theater actor, producer, writer or, as Hypebeast sums it up, "one of the best lyricists in the history of hip-hop."