Jay-Z/Coldplay: Viva La Hova

Mash-ups are like Hansel from Zoolander, ‘so hot right now‘. The craze of The Grey Album by Danger Mouse caused everyone and their aunties to develop a remix album of their own to the not-so-rare Jay-Z a cappellas. Fact: The album was a work of genius. Fact: Many of the other remix albums that were attempted were tacky, cheesy, obvious and silly. Regardless, it led to the widely publicized and popular Collision Course done by Linkin Park with Jay‘s participation and acceptance. Hova‘s willingness to reach out to artists outside of hip-hop continued with his collaboration with Coldplay‘s Chris Martin on the song “Beach Chair” from the Kingdom Come album.

“Beach Chair” seems to be the inspiration for the new Mick Boogie (Commissioner!) and Terry Urban mixtape, Viva La Hova. To carry on the grand tradition of putting Jay-Z‘s lyrics to someone else’s beats, Viva puts Jay‘s hot lines over Coldplay‘s drums, guitars and vocals. Now, if you’re like me and don’t know a damn thing about Coldplay and prefer Chris E. Martin over Chris Martin, please check your apprehension at the door, because this is quite the worthy effort. Boogie and Urban gather up-and-comers (Remot, nVMe) and established vets (9th Wonder, and Cookin’ Soul) to hit the boards and merge Jay-Z and Coldplay into one cohesive sound. The result is one of the best Jay-Z remixes to hit our iPods since The Grey Album.

Viva La Hova doesn’t have a bad track (with Jay-Z spitting, how can you? Except Kingdom Come, but I digress). Two of the standouts, “Know My Place” and “Back at My Place”, both sample “In My Place” and both do justice to Hova‘s confident raps from “U Don’t Know” and “Back Then”, respectively. “No Love Coming Home” effectively turns Jay‘s hot fire lyricism on “Heart of the City” into a piece of reminiscence. It’s quite amazing to see what simply changing the beat can do to a song.

9th Wonder comes with a departure from his signature soul-sample-and-those-same-drums with “Cold Success”, which Nas sounded REALLY good over. Following “Cold Success” is the highlight of the album, Remot‘s “What If We Cry?” Remot, whose American Gangster: Remoted won Hiphopdx.com‘s American Gangster Remix Contest, seems to have taken a shine to remixing Jay-Z albums and brought the heat on this track, which takes “Song Cry” and puts it over a really smooth, soulful beat that samples Coldplay‘s “What If?” The former sample is an introspective song, one filled with regrets, with a flash of boldness near the end. Remot ramps up the beat to match Hova‘s intensity when he pleads his case in the last verse and then deftly tones it back down when Jay realizes he’s lost and the girl is gone forever.

There really isn’t a whole lot to not like on this album. One of the pitfalls of mashups is that the original vision of the artist can be lost through the changing of the beat. But since both Jay-Z and Coldplay both co-sign the project, it’s safe to say that the vision of the producers on this mixtape jive with that of Jay and Coldplay. And that’s a great thing, because their interpretations have brought forth a great offering and hopefully serve as an inspiration for more cooperation between rappers and rockers to support projects like these.

Overall Score: 85/100

Standout Tracks: “Know My Place”, ”What If We Cry”, ”Back At My Place”