The Rub

Imagine a planet where two of your favorite artists from various genres are constantly smashed together on one track. Rick James and Busta Rhymes. Sean Paul and the Temptations. Arrested Development and Jay-Z, for Christ's sake. It's an odd world, but Brooklyn's funky DJ collective the Rub pulls it off...

By Jonathan Cunningham

April 5, 2007

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Imagine a planet where two of your favorite artists from various genres are constantly smashed together on one track. Rick James and Busta Rhymes. Sean Paul and the Temptations. Arrested Development and Jay-Z, for Christ's sake. It's an odd world, but Brooklyn's funky DJ collective the Rub pulls it off on its new release, It's the Motherfucking Remix — featuring 20 mashed-up tracks. Cuts like the Ghostface Killah-versus-Toto mix of "Good Times in Africa" are a treat not just because of the deft production work but because of the ear it takes to recognize that these artists have synergy. Listen to popular Fader writer Nick "Catchdubs" Barat's amped-up Baltimore remix of E-40's "Tell Me When to Go" and try not to go stupid dancing to it. Or the sex-laden Masters at Work and Denise dancehall tune "Work," which is somehow soca, dub-step, and house at the same time. Montreal's A-Trak contributes the most interesting and leftfield blend here, tweaking Jack White and the Raconteurs' "Steady as She Goes" and dropping Nelly Furtado's "Promiscuous" on top of it, but that's what the Rub crew is good at: blurring genres without reproach. There are also plenty of desi beats, bhangra, and soul records mixed underneath various tracks for audible sensation. This is a sweaty workout of an album meant for late nights and booty shaking of the highest caliber.

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