Freeplay
The Silence Xperiment
Q-Unit: Greatest Hits

By Joe Nguyen
nguyenjos@mscd.edu
   It opens with steady snares and the deep echoing sound of a piano. The melodious bassline plays as a familiar voice enters. The music and lyrics aren’t supposed to be together, but the blend works.
   This is 50 Cent’s lyrics from “This is How We Do” and Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust” transformed into “This Is How We Bite The Dust.”
   Q-Unit: Greatest Hits, the brainchild of The Silence Xperiment, combines Queen’s classic glam-rock sound with the gangsta lyrics of 50 Cent in this latest addition to the burgeoning mash-up genre.
   Mash-up projects combine music from two different artists. Many mash-ups are considered to be illegal because the original artists don’t give their consent for the use of these songs. In 2004, DJ Danger Mouse’s The Grey Album, a remix of Jay-Z’s Black Album and The Beatles’ White Album, created a great deal of controversy within the recording industry.
   What differentiates Q-Unit from other mash-up projects is there is a method to the mayhem beyond the beat matching.
   Songs used follow similar themes, such as “Under Pressure” with “High All the Time,” and “We Will Rock You” and “In Da Club.”
   “ If I Can’t Be The Champion,” takes a piano sample from “We Are The Champions” and adds a heavy head-nodding beat to it. 50 singing “If I can’t do it, it can’t be done,” flawlessly blends into Queen’s lyrics, “No time for losers.”
   The best song is “Just It All,” an amalgam of 50’s “Just a Lil’ Bit” and Queen’s “I Want It All.” Queen’s elaborate guitar riffs reinvent 50’s lyrics by infusing them with high energy, rather than the laid-back beats of the original version. The hook has 50 trading back-and-forth his “All I need is a lil’ bit” with Queen singing “I want it all.”
   The album finishes with “Bohemian Wanksta,” a surreal take on “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Wanksta.” Reversed samples fill the track as 50’s lyrics dreamily flow through the beats.
   It’s been 20 years since Run DMC teamed up with Aerosmith, for the rap-rock version of “Walk This Way.” Countless artists have tried to blend these two genres since, but few have accomplished something as masterfully put together, or aesthetically pleasing, as what The Silence Xperiment has done.

Download Q-Unit: Greatest Hits from http://www.q-unit.net

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