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MOUSE & THE MASK, THE

by Danger Doom

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Usually when you read that an album is "inspired by" a motion picture or TV show, you can be certain that the one thing those artists were inspired by was a big fat check, and consequently those records generally do not sound very good. But the debut collaboration between no-longer-underground hip-hop artists Dangermouse and MF Doom, allegedly inspired by the Cartoon Network's late-night stoner-centric animation series Adult Swim, is far better than it has any right being. Doom has one of the best flows around, and he's at least as smart as your favorite dictionary-digger. Danger Mouse's obscure samples are excellent, but this is just a fun record that's not trying to be more, or less. Character voices get worked in, and these are pretty cool, especially Shakey's send-up of the fake answering machine cliché. There're also guest appearances by Ghostface Killah, Cee-Lo, and Talib Kweli. When it comes to rappers hanging with cartoon characters, Mouse and the Mask is more fun than a Shaq attack and a Gorillaz record combined. --Mike McGonigal