It’s being hailed as one of the best remix albums ever made – and you may never even get the chance to hear it, let alone own it.
The Grey Album is a marriage of musical samples taken from The Beatles’ The White Album overlapped with vox and beats from Jay-Z’s The Black Album. DJ Danger Mouse was slapped with a cease-and-desist order after EMI caught wind of the project (rumours of which have been circulating on the internet for weeks), citing copyright infringement. Unfortunately for fans of the West Coast producer and DJ (not to mention fans of The Beatles and Jay-Z), goliaths of the music industry tend to see copyright issues in black and white – not in shades of grey.
According to MTV.com, EMI served the order to Danger Mouse, as well as to various retail outlets and online vendors of the album. The DJ has agreed to comply with the order and will no longer distribute the record, which was allegedly only intended for the ears of friends.
But the story doesn’t end there. In issuing the order, EMI has unwittingly thrust The Grey Album into the public spotlight, prompting guerilla music lovers to post MP3s on their websites and blogs. Considering that only 3,000 copies of The Gray Album were pressed and the fact that it has been banned pretty much guarantees a Holy Grail status among hip-hop fans and serious music collectors alike.