Music: DangerDoom - The Mouse And The Mask

Artist: DangerDoom
Album: The Mouse And The Mask
Label: Epitaph
Released: 2005

Review: Listen up 50! You too, all the "Lil" rappers out there! You could learn a lot about your craft by listening to this album.

Not only is this album drenched in wit and ill sampling madness (courtesy of Cartoon Network and their Adult Swim characters), but it also reflects a feel-good Saturday morning nostalgia and goofiness that we could all use more of.

The DangerDoom project is the genius pairing of producer Danger Mouse and lyricist MF Doom. Both men don masks on this spin. The latter in his now rusted metal face and the former in a large mouse costume.

Danger Mouse, famous for his fugitive juxtaposition of Jay-Z and the Beatles on the RIAA bait Grey Album, joins jingle-like cartoon themes, old soul grooves and banging drum beats to keep the kids and kids-at-heart dancing in their pajamas.

Doom, best known for his bleary-eyed masterpiece Madvillainy project with musical workhorse Madlib, spits some of the wittiest and playful lyrics to come out of hip-hop since the days of rapping about your new sneakers. In my opinion, Doom is one of the best rappers on any scene, independent or mainstream. So it tickles my brain and funny bone to hear him drop lines like "Hey yo, I know this dude right / Karl, he wore tight blue sweats but wasn't glued too tight / All he had upstairs was a crude light / You think that's weird he lived next door to a food fight" while referring to a character from Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

Which leads to the third element of this project. Several characters from Cartoon Network's Adult Swim join in the fun with lines from well-known episodes as well as exclusive sound-bytes recorded for the album. Highlights include Brak's attempt to steal Danger's beat and Doom's lyrical limelight. Equally hilarious are the anxious and aggressive answering machine messages from ATHF's Master Shake, who tries unsuccessfully until the last beat to offer his lyrical skills to the project.

The samples used are inclusive enough, the rapping is playful enough, and the production is catchy enough that any listener will find something to enjoy regardless of their familiarity with Cartoon Network or their opinion of hip-hop. For once, someone gets the all-inclusive ethic of the genre correct!

Another rare hip-hop practice employed on the album is the bleeping-out of most of the expletives dropped, keeping with Adult Swim's ethic and enhancing the Saturday morning ambience.

DangerDoom sounds like the cast of Mystery Science Theater 3000 watching weekend cartoons and performing a hip-hop comedy revue.

As an added bonus, the vinyl edition (not sure about the CD) ends with a Meatwad acapella rendition of MF Doom's Beef Rap from his culinary-themed Mm…Food album.

I promise, you will spin this record until it sounds like a static television signal on Sunday night and still be giggling into your cereal bowl.

Rating: 4.75 / 5

Buy The Mouse And The Mask : CD / LP
Buy the Sofa King single : 12" vinyl

Selected MF Doom Discography

- Mm..Food? - 2004 - CD
- Special Herbs Vols. 7 & 8 - 2004 - CD
- Madvillain - Madvillainy (w/Madlib) - 2004 - CD
- King Geedorah - Take Me To Your Leader - 2003 - CD

Picture provided by a link to Amazon.com