Let’s face it, this cross-genre mash-up started back with Aerosmith and Run DMC (”Walk This Way”) and has been attempted every so often since, often providing less than stellar results. Typically, these types of collaborations come across as forced, lacking chemistry, and representing yet another gimmick pushed onto consumers to create a spark in sales. This isn’t to say that cross-genre collaborations are an avoidable concept, but there has not been a  rap/rock collaborative project that really represented the best of both worlds. During this holiday season, music fans will have one more thing to be thankful for: a rap/rock project featuring some of the best from both genres. BlakRoc, a collaborative effort between Akron, Ohio’s Black Keys and some of hip-hop’s best (such as Mos Def, Q Tip, Pharoahe Monch, RZA, ODB and Ludacris). Recently, URB.COM caught up with the man between the drum kit, Patrick Carney, to find out how this project came together, what it is like working with hip-hop legends, as well as talking about some of their favorite hip-hop tracks.

URB:  How did you guys first connect with Dame Dash?
Carney: Prior to this May, Dan and I didn’t know Dame at all. We had heard of him, but we had never met him, but, yeah, he basically contacted us about a project, and we met up in New York at a studio for a couple of days to see what would happen, and during the first day we recorded six or seven instrumental songs, and later that evening Mos Def stopped by and we played him a few tracks; he came back the next day to work on a track and then Jim [Jones] came to work on a track, so we ended up doing two songs in one day and after that we just decided that it would make sense for us to go ahead and do a whole record and get as many people involved as possible. We only had two free months this summer before me and Dan started worked on our new record.

URB: What was Dame Dash’s role in this project?
Carney: His role in this project was to secure the MCs. Dan and I served as the producers because we were just making the music.

URB: How familiar were you these artists that you would be working with?
Carney: The only people on the record that I had never heard of prior to working with them on the record was Nicole Wray, who as it turns out, I had heard, but I just didn’t know it, and Billy Danze.  We gave Damon a list of people we wanted to work with; he had his own agenda, but anyone who Damon brought in we knew would be talented.  A few people, like RZA, Raekwon, Q-Tip are all legends. Some of the artists were more intimidating to work with than others, but it all ended up being really comfortable, actually.

URB: Just from watching the webisodes on the making of this album, it seems like there was a tremendous amount of chemistry with everyone working on this project. Did that take very long to develop with artists like Mos Def being such big fans of your music?
Carney: No, it happened fairly quickly. Everyone has different personalities, but everyone who showed up was excited on some level. Billy was the most warm dude to be around, I thought. Some people focused in different ways. Billy liked to hang out more, and Pharoahe just likes to sit down and write.

URB: Knowing how long it takes some of these artists to write their lyrics (Pharoahe, in particular) was it impressive to see these artists knock out lyrics to this project in a very short amount of time?
Carney: I think that is one of the coolest things about the record. If it wasn’t going to get done that day, it wasn’t going to happen. These days it is rare for any record to be that way.

URB:  It also seems to be really rare for artists to work face to face with file sharing and producers sending tracks via email to each other. Is that something that is really important when you collaborate with other artists, that idea of working in close proximity?
Carney: If we are going to play with someone else, I think it is important for us to meet them and talk to them and see where they are going. I think you end up with a better result. There  are certain aspects of making a record that I do not think are crucial to be around for. Like, for this record we did not mix the record.  We picked three people to mix the record and trusted what they would do, and then we would have the final say because sometimes it is best not to look over someone else’s shoulder. If you give too many directions to someone, it may make them feel like they feel like they have too many restrictions.

URB: In addition to having legendary MCs on this project, you also had legendary producers (Q-Tip, RZA). Did they contribute their advice on the direction of any song s or how they thought it should sound?
Carney: Well, RZA did, for sure. He played the electric guitar on the song that he is on (”Dollarz and Sense”), and we build up that song from the beginning with him. Both songs started with him playing the guitar and me playing the drums together and making loops and arranging it out of that.

URB: What was that like to be playing drums while he was on the guitar and how is he as a guitar player?
Carney: I think RZA is a genius. I have been a huge fan of his since I was a young teenager, so it was just mind blowing to be in the same room, let alone playing music with him. It was pretty much like a dream come true for me. The cool thing about watching him play is that  no matter what instrument he plays you can tell that it is RZA at all times. Whether he is playing the keyboard, the guitar, or describing a drum beat, he has this swagger, this sound. I thought that was pretty fucking cool. When you can make music that is sample-based, and then pick up an instrument and make it sound pretty much like the sample-based music, you know he just has the fucking feel.

URB:  Was he that one guy from this project that had you in disbelief of who you were working with?
Carney: It was all fucking amazing, but because he has produced five of my favorite records, and I kind of learned playing the drums listening to and playing along to Wu-Tang records, so for me it was kind of the highlight.

URB: What are those five favorite records?
Carney: Liquid Swords would probably be number one. Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). Those two especially. And then random other Wu-Tang records like the first ODB record, even the Cappadonna record. I think the record that me and Dan [Auerbach] have always been drawn to has been Liquid Swords. It is just dark and heavy.

URB: From their early projects, I would say it has the strongest rock elements to it, too.
Carney: Yeah, it does. It has this driving beat and the whole record is just amazing.

URB: Speaking of ODB. He has a track on the album with Ludacris (”Coochie”). How did that track come together?
Carney: Well that is an acappela track that had ODB on it, and Dame owns it. He had it from 2003 when ODB recorded it. It is from ODB’s record, but it was never released; it was supposed to come out on Rocafella, so we had the beat that ended up on the track, and no one wanted to get on it. They were attracted to the guitar oriented tracks. That was kind of the odd-ball track. It was also sort of a weird beat in relation to all of the other shit we were playing for everybody. When Dame brought in the acapella track, we realized that it was sort of operating in a double time beat that we had laying around, so we just had to sync it up, and it synced up pretty well. We just had to slow the beat down like one beat per minute, so it didn’t compromise anything. For Dan and I it would have been completely idiotic to pass up using an ODB vocal track because we are huge fans.

URB: When I heard the track, it sounded so good that it seemed like you guys made this when ODB was alive, and this was a track that you are just releasing now because it did not fit on any other project.
Carney: Well that’s why we left it on there. If it had sounded goofy in anyway, we would not have left it on there. ODB was such a fucking talent who died way too young. I feel that we did the vocals justice, but any ODB fan would want to hear new shit by him. Not to toot our own horn, but the original beat to that song is a double time beat and it does not have the same type of swagger that ended up on the track that we made.

URB: It took me awhile to get through this project just because I kept listening to that ODB track over and over again.
Carney: It’s my favorite track on the album. That and the Reakwon track.

URB: What was it about that Rea track that you enjoy so much?
Carney: The music is so free form. That is the only song that we did where there are no loops. Reakwon is just bringing the most descriptive, interesting shit and for me it is the most interesting to listen to. Then again, there isn’t a song on this album [that]I don’t like. Also, I wasn’t there when Rae came to record. I left around 11 to go watch my friend’s band play, and he showed up right around then, so by the time I got back, Rea was already done, so for me there is still a great deal of mystique because I wasn’t there.

URB: It seems like one of the characteristics of your music is how quickly you work on an individual project. You recorded your second album in a span of 48 hours. This most recent project you recorded in 11 days. What is it about making music in this manner that you find appealing?
Carney: We just don’t know how to work any other way. We both like things that feel honest. The best way to have that come across is not seek perfection because perfection is impossible. When you try to make something perfect or less flawed, you end up flawing it because you erase everything that  is crucial. Dan and I tend to not rehearse before we play shows. We tend not to write before we go into the studio as far as music goes. I think it is playing off of each other that really gives it that natural feel.

URB: Since you played the role of the producer on this project, have there been any discussions about you guys working with any of these artists on any of their other projects?
Carney: Not yet, but if we were interested in the project, we would. We just finished the next Black Keys project, and we are working on the next BlakRoc  project (we are half way done), and in January we are going into the studio to work on another Black Keys record because we are half way through with another Black Keys record. Our plan is by the time the next Black Keys record comes out in April we will have two more Black Keys records finished and another BlakRoc record finished. Right now, the way we feel right now, it’s the time, we have resources: let’s make as much music as possible while people still give a shit. We waited two years between the last couple of records, so we are at the point where we are like Why wait two years between records? In the early ’60s, ’70s like Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, like every band, would release a record, every eight months. That’s why Jimi has like four official records and twenty strange bootlegs.

URB: As far as the next BlakRoc project goes, do you think it will be the same sort of process as this first one was, meaning you knocked out the first one very quickly (11 tracks in 11 days).  Have you already started to work on it?
Carney: We have. We have already finished, about six tracks for it. There is nothing finalized though, but we have different artists doing a couple verses here and there on tracks, so nothing is finalized yet. I think the second one is already better than the first one.

URB: How would you describe your appreciation of hip-hop?
Carney: The thing that I mostly listen hip-hop for is the beat. I am the opposite of most people. This girl I am seeing knows the lyrics to every song. I don’t know the lyrics to any fucking song. I know the fucking drum beat to almost every song I have heard. I listen to the groove. I don’t listen to the lyrics. I think it is because I have the worst cause of fucking A.D.D. I am like a primordial human being once I get focused on that drum track.

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