Roc Roc Y'all

Don't get me wrong: the songs on the new Black Keys hip hop collaboration are very good. A refocused Mos Def stays on the hot streak that began with the end of Be Kind Rewind. Wu-Tang's contributing members are as sharp as ever, but with the very welcome bonus of a still-insane-even-in-death ODB. The Keys' beats thump and grind the way they always do. "Dollaz & Sense", with Pharoahe Monch and RZA, and "Ain't Nothing Like You (Hoochie Coo)", with Mos Def and Jim Jones are absolute winners. It really is great. But here's the thing: no matter how good it may be, this is one of those records that's about way more than just its tracks.  It sounds like nothing short of the birth of an entirely new and different moment in independent music.

Dan Auerbach, the Black Keys front man, can simply do no wrong now. The Keys have been well and rightly heralded for a while now, but, as usual, I discovered them entirely too late. He released a solo album earlier this year, Keep it Hid, and it was largely indistinguishable in tone and content from any other Keys effort, which is to say it was fantastic. A month or so after that he announced that the Keys would be working on another album, and you're thrilled, and then you hear it's going to be... a hip hop album? I can't imagine the feelings of dread and excitement over the prospect were unique to me. On first listen, you feel relief: they didn't blow it. The second time around you nod your head and try to make sense of what you're listening to: top-of-their-game rappers going to town over powerfully organic beats. Then you realize that, while rock/hip hop collaborations are nothing new, we're in wonderfully uncharted territory here.  This ain't Run DMC and Aerosmith.

There is, of course, a feeling of inevitablity to all this: you knew something was up when Jay-Z and Beyonce started showing up at Grizzly Bear shows.  Independent hip hop and independent rock are moving tantalizingly close together. And while there's no doubt that blues/funk lends itself better to hip hop than probably any other genre, the mind boggles at the possibilities for other collaborations: Britt Daniel producing the next Pharoahe Monch album? The Dap-Kings backing Q-Tip? Zooey Deschanal rapping over a Neptunes beat? Maybe not that last one.

Finally, full credit must go to producer Damon Dash here, whose idea this was. Long a fan of Auerbach's, he was able to convince the bluesman to come in and record with Jim Jones. Mos Def happened to walk in as well, and the rest is history. Or possibly just the beginning.