Liner Notes: Blakroc, 'Blakroc'

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AS STRANGE AS it sounds, the genesis of The Black Keys is due, in part, to Wu-Tang Clan.

"Dan [Auerbach] was my only friend who gave a shit about any of that stuff," drummer Patrick Carney said of his guitarist's shared appreciation for the New York rap group. "And I was his only friend that gave a shit about that stuff as well. We were neighbors, and we both played instruments, so that's kind of how we started playing in the first place — our mutual appreciation for that kind of stuff."

GZA's second solo album, "Liquid Swords," (which features appearances by the entire Wu-Tang Clan) left a considerable impression on the pair as they recorded the Keys' debut, "The Big Come Up." The album's title is even lifted from a line on "Liquid Swords."

"When it came time for us to make a record together we were both 21 years old, we both dropped out of college and we were both listening to 'Liquid Swords' all day long," Carney said. "When we made our first Black Keys record we turned it into the label and there were samples all over the place, and all kinds of shit going on. The label was this pompous, like garage-rock, label and the guy just didn't get it at all. It's probably for the best because he made us take all this shit off. We had nothing else going for us — two unemployed college dropouts in Akron, Ohio, who had a record deal that we couldn't [afford to] fuck up, so we had to take his advice.

"If you listen to the first record we left a couple things on there," he continued. "There's still 'The Breaks' — it opens with a sample drum break and this weird vocal thing — and every song has something like that going on. The very last song ["240 Years Before Your Time"] has this weird psychedelic beat with this weird vocal thing. I had this digital recorder and I recorded this record, and when Dan and I couldn't work together I spent time sampling shit."

All this makes The Black Keys' latest project, Blakroc, a collaboration with Roc-a-Fella Records co-founder Damon Dash and 11 hip-hop artists, seem like natural evolution. Couple it with last year's stellar "Danger Mouse-produced "Attack & Release" and this bluesy garage rock duo is more likely than ever to sound like psychedelic hip-hop beat makers.

"It was something that Dan and I both talked about wanting to do for a while," he said. "It's one of those things — I think there's probably a lot of people who listen to hip-hop and want to make beats or whatever."

In mid-April, Dash reached out to Auerbach and Carney after hearing the band through his assistants.

"He was kind of interested in how we were able to make a living without selling millions of records," Carney said. "I think he was into our work ethic."

The duo headed to Brooklyn for a studio session a few weeks later. Dash supplied the emcees, who worked in the evening and the Keys made beats during the day. Mos Def visited the studio the first night, returning the next day to cut two tracks — including one with Jim Jones.

"At that point we were pretty confident that it would make sense — that we'd be able to do it," Carney said."We were confident, I guess, that we could make beats, but we weren't confident that anyone would want to listen to them."

The Black Keys spent nine more days in the studio, and on Aug. 12 the record was done. "Blakroc" features appearances by Wu-Tang members RZA, Raekwon and Ol' Dirty Bastard (the latter by way of an unused Ludacris collaboration from O.D.B.'s last recording sessions). There are also guest spots from A Tribe Called Quest's Q-Tip, former Missy Elliot protege Nicole Wray, M.O.P.'s Billy Danze, Baltimore newcomer NOE and Pharoahe Monch. The Keys' work is minimalistic: guitars, drums, bass and keyboards, sampled and looped — a mix of gritty, jazzy and psychedelic beats that occasionally sound like rock songs, but more often resemble those of Wu-Tang Clan.

"I think the more we did it the better we got," Carney said. "The first couple things we did we were doing more bass, drums and electric guitar, and after five or six songs we decided to move from the guitar, to starting with bass and drums — starting as simply as possible and building up from there."

With all those collaborators, it'll be tough for Blakroc to perform live, although there will be appearances on "The Late Show with David Letterman" (with Mos Def) and "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" (aided by RZA). Auerbach and Carney haven't performed together much in 2009, as both have been busy with side projects: Auerbach on his solo debut, "Keep It Hid," and a subsequent tour; while Carney formed Drummer, which toured behind "Feel Good Together."

The Keys will ring in 2010 together, however, with shows in Chicago on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1. The shows are a sign of things to come though — after the "Blakroc" sessions wrapped, Auerbach and Carney went home, packed up a van and drove to Muscle Shoals, Ala., on Aug. 15. Ten days later, Black Keys record number six was done. Auerbach and Carney produced it themselves, and it will be out in April.

"Blakroc" debuts on Black Friday (Nov. 27), and Express asked Carney to take us behind the album, track by track.

"Coochie" (featuring Ludacris, Ol' Dirty Bastard)
Damon owns the last O.D.B. record that ever came out; O.D.B. made it for Roc-a-fella. So that song we did the beat the third or fourth day in the studio, and we ended up having this beat and we were playing it for people and no one really wanted to touch it, so it was just a leftover thing. And then Damon was mentioning that he had these O.D.B. tracks and we should check them out and see what we could do with them. So, we had a courier send over one a capella track from the set, "Coochie." We listened to the a cappella thing and we were taping our fingers and I realized — well, we all realized — the perfect double-time of the beat to "Coochie," so we decided to sync it up. It just layed on top of that track perfectly — all the changes and everything.

[Ludacris] was already on the track; the original track was leaked on the Internet like two years ago. So you can hear the original beat, which was done by a producer named Damon Elliott. The original beat is so different — it's insane.

"On the Vista" (featuring Mos Def)
That was one of the first songs we did, and at the time, we basically played Mos like five or six songs we had and he was drawn to that one. I think most of the beats when we were first starting all kind of fell into that kind of [minimalistic and jazzy] category of beats. I played the piano on that track and I cannot play the piano, but I can make things sound like a Tangerine Dream sample sometimes — that's kind of what we were doing.

"Hard Times" (featuring NOE)
Dan had that song started; the hook we did when we were just doing the instrumental track. I think NOE was just writing to the hook. As a guy from Baltimore and two dudes from Akron, everything has to do with [the economy] right now.

"Dollaz & Sense" (featuring RZA, Pharoahe Monch)
The way it worked was when [RZA] showed up, Dan and I were blown away because we've never met him. I've only ever met like four or five musicians in my life that have blown my mind — he's one of them. We were just like, whatever you want. He said he liked all the beats that we had but wanted to do something from the ground up, and he said he wanted to play electric guitar and Dan and I were like, "Absolutely — whatever you want to do."

So, he picked up a guitar and I went to sit on the drums. I basically learned how to play the drums listening to Wu-Tang records, so I was really nervous trying to do something that would work. RZA got on the talk-back mic and was like, "Do something like: one-two — I want to do a stomp — one-two." He was constantly doing like: "Bong-bong, do like the stomp, one-two, bong-bong." I knew exactly what he was talking about. I'm not exactly sure how, but he gave the most weird, awesome, nonsense instructions that made perfect sense, so then we just kind of jammed together for five minutes. And we basically sampled that and made loops out of it and the three of us just added shit to it. And RZA had a mic set up in the control room and just flowed through it and then we finished that.

"Why Can't I Forget Him" (featuring Nicole Wray)
I think Nicole Wray was in the studio for three or four days. She's on like three or four songs, and I think Dan and I just wanted to do something with just her because she has never had a song on a record that was just her. Dan wrote all the lyrics for that.

"Stay Off the Fuckin' Flowers" (featuring Raekwon)
We did that around the same time we did the "On the Vista" track. It was something sitting around that no one wanted to fuck with because there was really no chorus, it was just this loose jam thing. That's the one musician on the record I didn't get a chance to meet: Raekwon, because he showed up at like 10 p.m. and I had to be somewhere — my friend's band was playing in Brooklyn and I had to go because I put their record out and I hadn't seen them in about a year — but Dan was there and Dan said for him, that was the highlight of the record.

"Ain't Nothing Like You (Hoochie Coo)" (featuring Mos Def, Jim Jones)
It's actually from the second day. The first day we just made beats and Mos said he'd come back to the studio tomorrow because he liked it. If that day didn't go well we probably wouldn't have finished the record.

"Hope You're Happy" (featuring Billy Danze of M.O.P., Q-Tip, Nicole Wray)
That's one of the first beats we did. I like the chorus on it; it was something we were having trouble with the whole time because it sounded so rock 'n' roll and we were trying to avoid it, but Q-Tip wanted to use that beat. If he wanted to use it, we were gonna use it. It's the most rock 'n' roll beat on the record, definitely.

"Tellin' Me Things" (featuring RZA)
[After recording "Dollaz & Sense" RZA] pulled out this weird crystal out of his pocket. He was sitting right at the desk and I was right behind him, and I don't think he could see me because I was right behind his shoulder, and he slid this weird crystal out of his pocket and I watched it change colors from yellow to green. And I was like, "What the fuck is that? Is that some kind of mood crystal or something?" And then he slid it back into his pocket and was like, "Yo, you want to do another one?" We were like, "Yeah," and he was like, "All right. Yeah, I think I'm all good for that." And that's when we did "Telling Me Things."

And then he showed up the second day and we hung out and I don't know for sure, I don't want to just assume shit, but I'm pretty sure day one he was in Bobby Digital mode and then day two he was in RZA mode. Day two he didn't want to record anything. He wanted to play bass and jam with us, so we jammed together for like an hour-and-a-half in the live room and that was the whole day. [Playing with him] was a combination of nerve-racking and mind-blowing.

"What You Do to Me" (featuring Billy Danze, Jim Jones, Nicole Wray)
Dan wrote the hook. Dan wanted to do [a call-and-response thing]. At first it was just Dan singing it and we had Nicole get on it because it kind of mellowed it out a bit. Originally Bill D. wasn't on that track and we made room for a second verse because I thought it was getting a little too mellow, so we put Billy D. on it and it's fucking insane.

"Done Did It" (featuring Nicole Wray, NOE)
We sequenced [the record] out in about 20 minutes at a coffee shop. That, "Done Did It," and "Hope You're Happy" are two of the most rock 'n' roll beats and also two of the earliest ones we did. It was kind of like if you were to listen to this record in reverse order you'd actually be listening to it in the order of recording.

It's also a testament to when you're sequencing the record, you're doing it in a fast fashion. Both the Drummer record and the Blakroc record — I wouldn't say they were hastily made — they weren't like a Black Keys record. We've been a band for eight years, at this point were not just feeling each other out any more, we know exactly what's going on. This project, even though it is Dan and I playing on it, we're taking on a new perspective. It takes a little while to wrap your head around it.

Photos courtesy John Peets and Jonah Schwartz