Respect Authority

Looking for a new album to drive recklessly to just as the weather’s starting to get nice enough to roll the windows down? LA rapper, producer, and self-obsessed tough guy of all trades, Adrian Champion just released a White Stripes mashup album full of time-tested hip hop acapellas on top of scorching, raw guitar riffs and percussive piano-driven beats. Put simply, it’s the sonic manifestation of the term “badass.”

I’ve fallen a bit out of touch with the mashup scene in recent months; admittedly, the supersaturation of worn-out formulas was starting to get to even me and my bottomless collection of regrettable Flo Rida remixes. Nonetheless, I remain both vigilant and open-minded in my search for fresh ideas in the genre of bastardizing classic songs until they resemble more closely the musical equivalent of chicken pot pie. And let me make this certain: I’ve had a lot of chicken pot pie in my time, but I assure you, I still love me a chicken mother fucking pot pie. So check out the trailer below, it should get you salivating enough to start reaching across the table for the download link.

The White Stripes made a name for themselves with their bare bones, classic sound, and Champion maintains this theme with his selection of vocal samples from various rap legends. The gritty production quality of the instrumentation forms an unlikely but perfectly complementary backdrop to the mid-to-late 90s gangland mainstream hip hop that inhabits most of the album.

The potential to draw comparisons between the last decade’s notable ghetto warfare and rapper-brawling, and the old, lawless days of grizzled cowboys shooting each other dead in the dusty streets across the Wild West has always been there, but this masterfully produced mix has brought the parallels to the forefront like nothing before. And the result is a head-bobbing, genre-defying sonic assault that carves out new territory while still remaining reverent and faithful to the samples that made it all possible.

Champion might occasionally come across a bit like the obnoxious dude at the high school lunch table who won’t stop talking about how big his dick is with all his DJ call-outs spattering the album, claiming it as a “brand new classic.” Nonetheless, his arrogance may be undesirable but it’s not exactly undeserved — this mixtape does for The White Stripes what Danger Mouse did for The Beatles way back on The Grey Album, the album that just may have set off the entire mashup craze in the first place. It’s an illuminating 48 minutes — presented flawlessly, fun to listen to without turning into generic overdone dance trash, and best of all, more than the sum of its parts.