Danger Mouse & Jemini The Gifted One – Born Again (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Danger Mouse & Jemini The Gifted One – Born Again (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 36:09 minutes | 433 MB | Genre: Hip-Hop, Rap
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Lex Records

Danger Mouse & Jemini to finally release 2004 album ‘Born Again’. The producer, musician and songwriter (real name Brian Joseph Burton) teamed up with Brooklyn rapper Jemini (aka Jemini The Gifted One) to make the collaborative record almost 20 years ago.

Consisting of 10 previously unheard tracks, ‘Born Again’ is due to arrive on August 25 via Lex Records (pre-order/pre-save here). It’ll coincide with the 20th anniversary of the duo’s debut LP, the hip-hop cult classic ‘Ghetto Pop Life’ (2003).

Danger Mouse & Jemini’s 2003 teamup Ghetto Pop Life was a breakthrough, but it was also a crossroads: it paired an MC whose dalliance with the fickle major-label machine in the mid ’90s prepared him for a strong second wind as a survivor finding his audience in indie rap, and a largely-unknown, genre-agnostic beatmaker whose unconventionally psychedelic perspective would make him notorious a year later with the Jay-Z-goes-Beatles sample-clash The Grey Album. But while Danger Mouse went on to star-producer status through Gnarls Barkley and Gorillaz, Jemini was arrested on a narcotics charge shortly after Ghetto Pop Life’s release, and his promising career was stifled. The what-could’ve-been scenario finally gets an answer in Born Again, their unearthed lost second album—or at least a significant portion of what it was intended to be. Recorded circa 2004, Born Again is compelling enough off Danger Mouse’s beats, which are still a bit dusty compared to his later work. His characteristic ability to make opulent bangers out of baroque pop and prog-rock flourishes feels like a funhouse mirror version of what Kanye was concurrently doing with classic R&B. But the emotional heart of the album comes from the mic-holder. Jemini’s an interesting case here. His declarative, emphatic golden age-honed style isn’t all that esoteric by the era’s indie-rap standards, but his energy level and conviction aren’t ever in doubt. And compared to Ghetto Pop Life, and even in isolation, Born Again stands out by being more reflective and introspective. Jemini gets deep into his emotions, and when he breaks down the agonies of incarceration (“Locked Up”) or the minefields of hood social politics (“Where You From”) or just assesses his then-still-tenuous position in the rap game (“Brooklyn Bazquiat”), you can hear the passion of someone who knew he deserved his shot and had the insights to justify it. – Nate Patrin

Tracklist:
01. Danger Mouse – All I (03:22)
02. Danger Mouse – Locked Up (03:54)
03. Danger Mouse – Me (04:04)
04. Danger Mouse – Knuckle (01:27)
05. Danger Mouse – Born Again (03:44)
06. Danger Mouse – Brooklyn Bazquiat (03:50)
07. Danger Mouse – Walk the Walk (04:10)
08. Danger Mouse – Where You From (03:59)
09. Danger Mouse – Dear Poppa (03:27)
10. Danger Mouse – World Music (04:07)

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