Unlimited Streaming
Listen to this album in high quality now on our apps
Start my trial period and start listening to this albumEnjoy this album on Qobuz apps with your subscription
SubscribeEnjoy this album on Qobuz apps with your subscription
Digital Download
Purchase and download this album in a wide variety of formats depending on your needs.
Brian Burton was a teenage Roots fanatic -- so eager to own but too short on funds to buy his beloved band's Do You Want More?!!!??! that he paid an acquaintance to lift a copy for him. A decade later, Burton had become Danger Mouse, an ascendant producer with enough clout and confidence to seek lead Roots MC Black Thought for a collaboration. Mouse and Thought meshed and recorded demos for a potential LP. Other projects then took precedence. Thought reached out to Mouse after another 11 years passed, in 2017, and over the next year, the two laid down much of what materialized in 2022 as Cheat Codes. Given the project's genesis before the rapping half's 2018-2020 solo trilogy, it stands to reason that Cheat Codes isn't billed as Streams of Thought, Vol. 4. It's also of an even higher concentration. Returning to sample-based production, Danger Mouse favors '60s and '70s psych, prog, and soul recordings that are moody, trippy, and sometimes eerie. The crisp if soot-coated drums, smeared strings, moaning organs, and gnarled guitars are all very compatible with Thought, who scythes through it all with unparalleled wordplay delivered with surgical precision. The guest appearances are superfluous more often than they are truly complementary. Representing the latter, MF Doom (recorded post-Danger Doom) shuffles into place on "Belize" with such ease that he sounds like part of a longtime trio. Michael Kiwanuka sets up "Aquamarine" -- one of two tracks that also reconnects Mouse with fellow Kiwanuka producer Inflo -- by crooning a grave hook that leads to some of Thought's bleakest and most authoritative statements. They pivot from lines ending with "bullion," "Suleiman," a racist epithet, and "depression" to "I'm a king, I'm dipped in God's Black complexion." Some stellar outside contributions notwithstanding, Cheat Codes stimulates most when Mouse and Thought are sequestered, allowing the latter to leave space only for the occasional instrumental break or rare prominent sampled vocal. The title track is an unremitting torrent of high-alert reality checks like "Shit, it's real when you done lost your last feeling/Jump then bounce back off the glass ceiling/Back to stealing, to Xanax and smack dealing." "Violas and Lupitas," which could triple in length without losing its transfixing power, ends the album with a grand flourish: "Go ask them about the gatekeeper, world leader/Kill shit quicker than Usain could run a hundred meter." Quotables such as that, over a production that skillfully combines opulence and grit, prove that the duo fulfilled their plan right on time.
© Andy Kellman /TiVo
You are currently listening to samples.
Listen to over 100 million songs with an unlimited streaming plan.
Listen to this playlist and more than 100 million songs with our unlimited streaming plans.
From $10.83/month
Black Thought, MainArtist - Brian Joseph Burton, Composer, Writer - Clarence Reid, Writer - Tarik Trotter, Composer, Writer - Danger Mouse , Producer, Engineer, Instruments, MainArtist - Kennie Takahashi, Mixer, Engineer - Bob Weston, Engineer
© 2022 BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited ℗ 2022 BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited
James Mercer, Backing Vocals - Black Thought, MainArtist - Brian Joseph Burton, Composer, Writer - Tarik Trotter, Composer, Writer - Danger Mouse , Producer, Engineer, Instruments, MainArtist - Kennie Takahashi, Mixer, Engineer - Bob Weston, Engineer - Lester Johnson, Writer - Robert Townsend, Writer - Inflo, Engineer, Backing Vocals - Michael Liggins, Writer - Brandon Bost, Engineer - Matthew Watson, Writer
© 2022 BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited ℗ 2022 BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited
Corey Woods, Writer - Pauline Matthews, Writer - Black Thought, MainArtist - Brian Joseph Burton, Writer - Tarik Trotter, Composer, Writer - Danger Mouse , Producer, Engineer, Instruments, MainArtist - Kennie Takahashi, Mixer, Engineer - Bob Weston, Engineer - Kid Sister, FeaturedArtist - Raekwon, FeaturedArtist - Inflo, Engineer, Vocals - Brandon Bost, Engineer - Dean Josiah Cover, Writer - Samuel Benjamin Cohen, Composer, Writer
© 2022 BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited ℗ 2022 BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited
Black Thought, MainArtist - Brian Burton, Organ - Brian Joseph Burton, Composer, Writer - Mort Shuman, Writer - Tarik Trotter, Composer, Writer - JERRY RAGOVOY, Writer - Danger Mouse , Producer, Engineer, Instruments, MainArtist - Kennie Takahashi, Mixer, Engineer - Bob Weston, Engineer
© 2022 BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited ℗ 2022 BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited
Dorian Burton, Writer - Black Thought, MainArtist - Brian Joseph Burton, Composer, Writer - Tarik Trotter, Composer, Writer - Danger Mouse , Producer, Engineer, Instruments, MainArtist - Kennie Takahashi, Mixer, Engineer - Bob Weston, Engineer - Herman Kelly, Writer - Russ, FeaturedArtist - Joey Bada$$, FeaturedArtist - Jo-Vaughn Virginie Scott, Writer - Dylan Cartlidge, Writer, FeaturedArtist - Russell James Vitale, Writer
© 2022 BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited ℗ 2022 BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited
Black Thought, MainArtist - Brian Joseph Burton, Composer, Writer - Tarik Trotter, Composer, Writer - Danger Mouse , Producer, Engineer, Instruments, MainArtist - Kennie Takahashi, Mixer, Engineer - Bob Weston, Engineer - MF Doom, FeaturedArtist - George Stavis, Writer - Daniel Thompson Dumile, Writer
© 2022 BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited ℗ 2022 BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited
Black Thought, MainArtist - Brian Joseph Burton, Composer, Writer - Tarik Trotter, Composer, Writer - Danger Mouse , Producer, Engineer, Instruments, MainArtist - Kennie Takahashi, Mixer, Engineer - Bob Weston, Engineer - Barry Stoller, Writer - Jean-Pierre Alarcen, Writer - Michael Kiwanuka, Writer, FeaturedArtist - Dean Josiah Cover, Writer - Berrie Wilson, Writer
© 2022 BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited ℗ 2022 BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited
Black Thought, MainArtist - Brian Joseph Burton, Composer, Writer - Tarik Trotter, Composer, Writer - Danger Mouse , Producer, Engineer, Instruments, MainArtist - Kennie Takahashi, Mixer, Engineer - Bob Weston, Engineer - Colin Catt, Writer - Phil Gunn, Writer
© 2022 BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited ℗ 2022 BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited
Black Thought, MainArtist - Hector Delgado, Engineer - Brian Joseph Burton, Composer, Writer - Tarik Trotter, Composer, Writer - Danger Mouse , Producer, Engineer, Instruments, MainArtist - Kennie Takahashi, Mixer, Engineer - Bob Weston, Engineer - Jaime Meline, Writer - Mark Wirtz, Writer - A$AP Rocky, FeaturedArtist - Run The Jewels, FeaturedArtist - Wil Anspach, Engineer - Dylan Cartlidge, Writer, Background Vocals, Bass - Billy Cumella, Engineer - Connor Grant, Engineer - Carl Bespolka, Engineer - Rakim Athelaston Mayers, Writer - Michael Santiago Render, Writer
© 2022 BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited ℗ 2022 BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited
Black Thought, MainArtist - Brian Joseph Burton, Composer, Writer - Tarik Trotter, Composer, Writer - Danger Mouse , Producer, Engineer, Instruments, MainArtist - Kennie Takahashi, Mixer, Engineer - Bob Weston, Engineer
© 2022 BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited ℗ 2022 BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited
Black Thought, MainArtist - Brian Joseph Burton, Composer, Writer - Tarik Trotter, Composer, Writer - Danger Mouse , Producer, Engineer, Instruments, MainArtist - Kennie Takahashi, Mixer, Engineer - Bob Weston, Engineer - Sam Cohen, Organ, Bass - Conway The Machine, FeaturedArtist - Demond Price, Writer - Matthew Buscarino, Engineer - Claudio Canali, Writer - Guissepe Cossa, Writer
© 2022 BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited ℗ 2022 BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited
Black Thought, MainArtist - Brian Joseph Burton, Composer, Writer - Tarik Trotter, Composer, Writer - Danger Mouse , Producer, Engineer, Instruments, MainArtist - Kennie Takahashi, Mixer, Engineer - Bob Weston, Engineer - Tom Joe White, Writer
© 2022 BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited ℗ 2022 BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited
Album review
Brian Burton was a teenage Roots fanatic -- so eager to own but too short on funds to buy his beloved band's Do You Want More?!!!??! that he paid an acquaintance to lift a copy for him. A decade later, Burton had become Danger Mouse, an ascendant producer with enough clout and confidence to seek lead Roots MC Black Thought for a collaboration. Mouse and Thought meshed and recorded demos for a potential LP. Other projects then took precedence. Thought reached out to Mouse after another 11 years passed, in 2017, and over the next year, the two laid down much of what materialized in 2022 as Cheat Codes. Given the project's genesis before the rapping half's 2018-2020 solo trilogy, it stands to reason that Cheat Codes isn't billed as Streams of Thought, Vol. 4. It's also of an even higher concentration. Returning to sample-based production, Danger Mouse favors '60s and '70s psych, prog, and soul recordings that are moody, trippy, and sometimes eerie. The crisp if soot-coated drums, smeared strings, moaning organs, and gnarled guitars are all very compatible with Thought, who scythes through it all with unparalleled wordplay delivered with surgical precision. The guest appearances are superfluous more often than they are truly complementary. Representing the latter, MF Doom (recorded post-Danger Doom) shuffles into place on "Belize" with such ease that he sounds like part of a longtime trio. Michael Kiwanuka sets up "Aquamarine" -- one of two tracks that also reconnects Mouse with fellow Kiwanuka producer Inflo -- by crooning a grave hook that leads to some of Thought's bleakest and most authoritative statements. They pivot from lines ending with "bullion," "Suleiman," a racist epithet, and "depression" to "I'm a king, I'm dipped in God's Black complexion." Some stellar outside contributions notwithstanding, Cheat Codes stimulates most when Mouse and Thought are sequestered, allowing the latter to leave space only for the occasional instrumental break or rare prominent sampled vocal. The title track is an unremitting torrent of high-alert reality checks like "Shit, it's real when you done lost your last feeling/Jump then bounce back off the glass ceiling/Back to stealing, to Xanax and smack dealing." "Violas and Lupitas," which could triple in length without losing its transfixing power, ends the album with a grand flourish: "Go ask them about the gatekeeper, world leader/Kill shit quicker than Usain could run a hundred meter." Quotables such as that, over a production that skillfully combines opulence and grit, prove that the duo fulfilled their plan right on time.
© Andy Kellman /TiVo
About the album
- 1 disc(s) - 12 track(s)
- Total length: 00:38:14
- Main artists: Danger Mouse Black Thought
- Composer: Various Composers
- Label: BMG Rights Management (UK) Ltd
- Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap
© 2022 BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited ℗ 2022 BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited
Improve album informationWhy buy on Qobuz?
-
Stream or download your music
Buy an album or an individual track. Or listen to our entire catalog with our high-quality unlimited streaming subscriptions.
-
Zero DRM
The downloaded files belong to you, without any usage limit. You can download them as many times as you like.
-
Choose the format best suited for you
Download your purchases in a wide variety of formats (FLAC, ALAC, WAV, AIFF...) depending on your needs.
-
Listen to your purchases on our apps
Download the Qobuz apps for smartphones, tablets, and computers, and listen to your purchases wherever you go.