When thinking of genre crossovers in music, it’s difficult to avoid gearing your mindset into disappointment-mode, as the result is usually neither here nor there. With this in mind, what then brings successful American Blues-Rock duo The Black Keys together with such notable hip-hop artists as Raekwon, RZA, and Q-Tip, under the guise of Blackroc?Surprising to most, The Black Keys were conceived through a mutual love for the sound of RZA’s production. “We’ve been saying that from day one”, explains Aeurbach in a recent interview, “that when we started we wanted our demo to sound like a Wu-Tang record. So it was basically like we sort of had been preparing for this “Blakroc” record since we were 16”. Although seemingly in the woodworks for quite some time, this album is certainly not the long-planned child of a lengthy love affair of the Keys. Instead, it came about like “a whirlwind”. Aeurbach explains, “It was natural and super-creative and unlike most modern hip-hop I think. It was communal”.As natural as this may have been, it did not render the project effortless by default. As Aeurbach explains, “these guys didn’t have time to listen to a beat for months or a week and write their rhymes. They had to come in face to face with us and deliver. It was all spontaneous”. Surely then, if this type of recording and writing process were to work for any music genre, it would work best for hip-hop; a genre defined by its quick-thinking and lyrically astute members.Surely enough, as the videos on the website document, each artist approaches the task differently. The legendary RZA of Wu-Tang acclaim carefully listens to what the Keys have in mind, then, somewhat controversially offers, “giving a few licks, that may be awkward” and letting the Keys create the music around it, thus essentially rooting himself into the core of the song. Then there’s Pharoahe Monch’s approach, where he’s seen scribbling away to the music for quite some time (“this is the fastest I ever wrote!”), becoming rather excitable with his vodka (“the clear’s the way to go!”) and his genuine buzz when the whole song eventually comes together.Although initially seeming an unnatural and a potentially disastrous project, Blakroc stands out atypically as everything but. As Aeurbach comments, “nothing felt contrived or forced, and that was the beauty of the whole thing”. Like a jigsaw falling into place, everything just seems to coalesce so concisely with a spontaneous beauty. The facts speak for themselves, 11 days with 11 artists, resulting in 11 tracks released on the 11th month. Now do 11 friends a favour and buy them this gem.