Try as it may to convince us otherwise, rap is a silly thing. So muchso that it becomes self-defeating, too: rappers swagger and boast,strutting like peacocks as they spin fantastical yarns and spendcountless hours in comical self agrandizement so farcical you'd have tobe a suburban adolescent to swallow it all. And all this in the name ofrealness.Epitaph
It's lucrative, but still silly and absurd—cartoonish, even.Perhaps it was with this in mind that Cartoon Network commisioned The Mouse and the Mask—a collection of hip hop songs inspired by the sublime Adult Swimlineup, crafted by two of the underground's true characters: on themic, the bemasked tongue-in-cheekiest MF Doom, and on the beats, DangerMouse, finally starting to forge an identity outside of "that cat whoflipped the Beatles."
The premise isn't as absurd as it may sound: hip-hop appears onAdult Swim frequently, whether it's snippets of Madvillian in betweencommericals, or Ice-T appearing on Spaceghost Coast to Coast. Predictably,the album is a hoot - able to be legitimately funny without a cringe-worthymoment. Guest spots from Adult Swim personalities pepper the record—including a freestyle from Meatwad from Aqua Teen Hunger Force—but thetrue star is, as usual, Doom's flow. As usual, the lyrics are chock-full ofarcane references rhymed line-on-line with puns, inside jokes andnewly-coined words and phrases, all spat out with the now-typical rapid-fireease that should have made Doom a national name long ago. And, in a firstsince Grey Album days, Danger Mouse's instrumentation nearly steals theshow, rising above merely solid beats through a tantalizing blend of soul andR&B samples chopped with loops and snippets culled from the Adult Swimcatalogue. Inevitably, the record will collect sneers: it's just too silly orchildish to be a rap record. Those who get the irony—like the surprising guestMCs Talib Kweli and Ghostface Killa—will know the truth: Danger Doom'sjust old school like that, and the most laughable rappers are still on BET's106 and Park.
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