Danger Mouse and Black Thought

Biography

Danger Mouse and Black Thought is a hip-hop supergroup pairing producer Brian Joseph Burton (Danger Mouse, born July 29, 1977, in White Plains, New York) and rapper Tariq Luqmaan Trotter (Black Thought, born October 3, 1973, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). Danger Mouse rose to prominence in 2004 with The Grey Album — an unauthorized mashup of Jay-Z's The Black Album and the Beatles' White Album that became a cultural flashpoint — before producing landmark projects for Gorillaz (Demon Days), co-founding Gnarls Barkley with CeeLo Green, and shaping the careers of The Black Keys and Adele, among many others. Black Thought co-founded The Roots with drummer Questlove in Philadelphia in the late 1980s, building a reputation as one of hip-hop's most technically gifted MCs through complex multisyllabic rhyme schemes and socially conscious lyricism before the group became the house band for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in 2009.

The two first connected around 2005 following Danger Mouse's Dangerdoom collaboration with MF DOOM, and initial sessions were shelved for years. The collaboration crystallized into a full album in 2017, with the bulk of recording completed in 2018, but COVID-19 delays and continuous reworking pushed the release back until August 12, 2022. Released as Cheat Codes on BMG, the album is a dense, moody 12-track set built on '60s and '70s psych, funk, prog, and soul sources — obscure samples from Hugh Masekela, Gwen McCrae, and Kiki Dee alongside film soundtrack material — layered beneath Black Thought's unflinching reflections on race, mortality, and survival in America. The album's most poignant moment is "Belize," featuring a vocal from MF DOOM recorded during their 2005 sessions that went unplaced for nearly 17 years until DOOM's unexpected death in October 2020 made it one of his final released performances. Barack Obama included "Belize" among his favorite songs of 2022.

Cheat Codes earned universal critical acclaim (Metacritic: 83/100), reaching #1 on the UK R&B Albums chart and charting internationally. Critics praised it as a late-career triumph that fused Danger Mouse's cinematic production instincts with Black Thought's elite lyricism — a combination that NPR described as "the solo album Black Thought couldn't have made until now." A guiding artistic principle of the record was Black Thought's observation: "You can't name a classic song that's not sad," which manifests throughout in the album's somber, reflective tone. Black Thought has continued his prolific output with Glorious Game (2023, with El Michels Affair) and a memoir, The Upcycled Self (2023), selected for One Book One Philadelphia in 2025.

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Fun Facts

• The MF DOOM vocal on 'Belize' was recorded during their 2005 Dangerdoom sessions and sat unused for nearly 17 years before being placed on Cheat Codes — and DOOM died in October 2020, making it one of his last released recordings. Barack Obama named the track among his favorite songs of 2022.
• Danger Mouse took his name from a 1981 British animated cartoon and, in his early career, performed in an actual mouse costume due to stage fright and shyness.
• In 2006, Danger Mouse and street artist Banksy covertly modified 500 copies of Paris Hilton's debut album — replacing her music with remixed tracks and swapping the cover art — then distributed them in UK record shops.
• Black Thought lost both of his parents to murder before adulthood (his father when he was one, his mother during his teens). He wrote candidly about this in his 2023 memoir The Upcycled Self, which was selected as One Book One Philadelphia for 2025 — the city's annual citywide reading program.

Musical Connections

Mentors/Influences

• MF DOOM - Key creative influence on Danger Mouse; their 2005 collaboration Dangerdoom: The Mouse and the Mask preceded and seeded the Cheat Codes partnership. DOOM noted Danger Mouse's philosophy: 'make you groove off a glitch.'
• The Last Poets - Cited by Black Thought as a direct ancestor of his lyrical tradition — proto-rap spoken word poets he explicitly references on 'Belize' as 'that from which we came.' [Formative]

Key Collaborators

• MF DOOM - Featured on 'Belize' using a vocal recorded in 2005 — likely one of DOOM's final released recordings before his death in October 2020. (Cheat Codes (2022) – 'Belize') [2005 / 2022]
• A$AP Rocky - Featured alongside Run the Jewels on 'Strangers'. (Cheat Codes (2022) – 'Strangers')
• Run the Jewels - El-P and Killer Mike featured on 'Strangers'. (Cheat Codes (2022) – 'Strangers')
• Raekwon - Wu-Tang Clan member featured on 'The Darkest Part'; the track's drums were entirely rebuilt after his vocal was recorded. (Cheat Codes (2022) – 'The Darkest Part')
• Michael Kiwanuka - Featured on 'Aquamarine'; Danger Mouse and Kiwanuka had a prior working relationship. (Cheat Codes (2022) – 'Aquamarine')
• Conway the Machine - Griselda rapper featured on 'Saltwater'. (Cheat Codes (2022) – 'Saltwater')
• Joey Bada$$ - Featured on 'Because' alongside Russ and Dylan Cartlidge. (Cheat Codes (2022) – 'Because')
• Questlove - Black Thought's co-founder and lifelong creative partner in The Roots; the two met in Philadelphia in 1987 and have collaborated continuously since. [1987–present]

Artists Influenced

• Conway the Machine - Part of the younger generation of lyricists Black Thought has championed and collaborated with, representing the continuation of dense technical rap. [2020s]

External Links

• Spotify
• Wikipedia