On “The Darkest Part” and “Aquamarine,” he taps into the same energy well as his famous Hot 97 freestyle to flip Public Enemy references and the constant struggles between science and religion into short parables of preservation. This puts as much emphasis on his words as his technique, and Black Thought continues to rap his ass off. Take opening song “Sometimes,” which turns a bed of violins, piano, guitar, and maudlin vocals into a pulpit for Black Thought to draw lines across Black history: “Images of grandeur from Jamel Shabazz, Dapper Dan/Clap your hands whether you’re in Paterson or Pakistan/Richard Wright, Black boy who grew into a Blacker man.” Black Thought’s flows are more rigid than those of a rapper like DOOM, whose syllable count and meter phase through dimensions, and the beats reflect his steady posture. But most of these beats are standard boom-bap, handsome but not particularly adventurous. Tongue-in-cheek flourishes pop up every once in a while, like the twangy guitar lick grating against the crisp drums on “No Gold Teeth” or the patch of rhythmic hums on the hook of “Strangers.” On “Saltwater,” he even takes a stab at the sloping rhythms associated with Griselda to accommodate guest Conway the Machine. Mouse dives back into grainy loops that will be familiar to fans of his older rap work, though they’re generally less playful than you may be expecting. The three volumes of Streams of Thought have rendered Black Thought more prolific as a solo artist than ever before and while Danger Mouse has certainly worked with rappers since The Mouse and The Mask, he hasn’t produced an entire album for one in nearly 20 years. Their faith in each other is well placed, breeding a dozen tracks of solid, bare-bones hip-hop.Ī reunion at this point in their respective careers is peculiar because they’re approaching it from different ends. After several false starts, the duo finally reaches the finish line with their first full-length collab, now called Cheat Codes. Busy schedules eventually forced them to shelve the project for over a decade: Danger Mouse formed the duo Broken Bells with James Mercer of the Shins and produced albums for the Black Keys and Karen O, while Black Thought settled into his role in Jimmy Fallon’s house band and began his Streams of Thought EP series in 2018.

After working together on what would ultimately become a campy bonus track for Danger Mouse and DOOM’s 2005 Adult Swim collaboration The Mouse and The Mask, they began crafting an album originally called Dangerous Thoughts. The pair recognized each other as kindred spirits as far back as the mid-aughts.

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