Written by Tyler McLaurin

Kanye of the Stone age is a mash-up album by ToTom which combines the rap stylings of Kanye West with the riff driven instrumentals of Queens of the Stone Age. The album features mashups such as “Jesus Walks with the Flow”, No One Knows King Crimson’s Power” or “Runaway Into the Fade”. While there are a few misfires, many of these tracks come out sounding very cohesive, and ultimately complement each other very well. The rock instrumentals imbue Kanye’s lyrics with fire and passion, and elevate the energy levels of his performances. This is especially apparent on tracks like “Black Skinhead Does it Again”, where Kanye’s increases in pitch and excitement is supported by growling guitar riffs and thundering drums. Other tracks take a more subdued approach, but ultimately work out such as “Make it Wit Barry Bonds”. This song uses the jazzy and dare I say romantic instrumental of Make it Wit Chu with the braggadocios lyrics of Barry Bonds, which creates a very smooth listening experience.

“The only track that flat out doesn’t work is “Tree Digger”, which only turned me off because of the c-constant skipping through Kanye’s v-verse.”

I find the main value of this mashup as a hip hop fan is the way they reinvigorate the Queens of the Stone Age instrumentals. While Kanye’s passion and hater hating work tremendously well over these rock driven instrumentals, I was more surprised by how well the Queens sounded as rap beats. I began to suspect this after I heard Berzerk and Survival by Eminem, but guitar driven rock and rap flows are actually a good match. As much as I am a Queens fan, I found myself enjoying Kanye’s raps more than Josh Homme’s moaning falsetto. The only track that flat out doesn’t work is “Tree Digger”, which only turned me off because of the c-constant skipping through Kanye’s v-verse. That being said, when it works it works. The track “Better it Giveth” is a great example of this. The instrumental features a relentless rapid fire guitar riff, giving the track an energy and pace that wasn’t part of the original song. The verses work the same way, replaces the floating vocals with rapid fire flows, which manage to keep up with energy of the guitars. The way the verses roll into the hook is so good, it almost seems intentional.

Canon EOS Rebel T5 18MP DSLR Camera With 18-55mm Lens Kit

(more…)