Damon Dash <3’s the Black Keys (and so does everyone else in Hip-Hop)

This week Damon Dash announced that he is coming back into the music biz with a bang—or rather a sultry, bluesy twang—with the arrival of Black Roc, his new production outfit, a partnership with Ohio’s Black Keys.

Black Roc celebrates the late 00s tradition of genre-fucking by featuring a melange of Hip Hops finest from underground heavyweights like Mos Def and Pharoae Monch to heavy rotators Jim Jones and Ludacris to famed predecessors Rza and Q-Tip.

As the story goes, Dash himself couldn’t make it to his own assistant’s birthday dinner because of their conflicting plans to see the now sold-out show for the Black Keys. Dash listened and loved, and hence made plans for Black Roc- and a yet-to-be-named label partnership with the Keys as well.

These past few years we’ve seen Hip-Hop show more and more appreciation for indie rock- first with Kanye covering Peter Bjorn & John’s Young Folks, and then putting out his own album including songs that could have been written by the Postal Service.  And of course Beyonce and Jay-Z were seen at Grizzly Bear’s Williamsburg debut this summer. But Black Roc pioneers a different, integrative crossover that we’re excited about- even more excited than everybody’s favorite flavor of the month, Make Her Say.

—Fucci