NEW MASHUPS (plural!) - Kanye vs Nine Inch Nails

2 for the price of one!

[both free]

I’ve had an idea for a while of putting out an album of mashups where one “side” has the singing of “song a” over the tune of “song b”, and vice-versa on the other “side” of the album.

The name of this project is “a//b” , and my first experiment with this are these two new mashups, combing Kanye West’s “Jesus Walks” with Nine Inch Nails’ “The Good Soldier”.

I’ve been asked how do I come up with these mashup combinations. Each mashup is different, e.g. for my last one "“Broken Shallow” , I knew I wanted to use the Broken Arrow theme with something, so I cast around for a song that rhymed with “arrow” - "“Shallow” was close enough!

For this one the answer is simply: Spotify’s randomisation algorithm. I have a large playlist which is full of all the music I like, which I just put on shuffle when I can’t be bothered to choose specific music. Last week on my commute, the algorithm played these two tracks one after the other and I realised their harmonic, rhythmic and thematic similarities (dealing as they do with war, race and religion). Perfect for an experiment with my “a//b” project.

Feel free to comment below to let me know which one you prefer:

• “The Good Jesus” (Kanye rapping over NIN) or;

• “The Soldier Walks” (Reznor singing over Kanye).

Mashup of Kanye West "Jesus Walks" and Nine Inch Nails "The Good Soldier".

Mashup of Nine Inch Nails "The Good Soldier" and Kanye West "Jesus Walks".

Songs sampled:

Kanye West “Jesus Walks” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYF7H_fpc-g

Nine Inch Nails “The Good Soldier” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQcMQ4LYiNQ

The Arc Choir “Walk With Me” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ib36OXrEL8