"Blakroc" (stylized as BlakRoc) is a studio album by the American rock band The Black Keys, released in collaboration with Damon Dash, the co-founder and former co-owner of Roc-A-Fella Records, who oversaw the project. The album features guest appearances from a variety of hip-hop and R&B artists, including Mos Def, Nicole Wray, Pharoahe Monch, Ludacris, Billy Danze of M.O.P., Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest, Jim Jones, NOE of ByrdGang, as well as Raekwon, RZA, and Ol' Dirty Bastard from Wu-Tang Clan.
The collaboration began when Damon Dash, a fan of the Ohio-based rock duo The Black Keys, reached out to them after discovering their music. Dash proposed the idea of recording together, and he brought in his associate, rapper Jim Jones, to work on the project. During the recording sessions at Studio G in Brooklyn, New York, Mos Def, who happened to be nearby, joined the band and contributed to the album. Over the course of eleven weeks, more artists were brought in to collaborate, and the album came together with co-producer Joel Hamilton.
One of the notable aspects of Blakroc is the inclusion of vocals from the late rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard, who had recorded some tracks before his death. These tapes were originally intended for a future album under his Roc4Life venture with Def Jam, and were included in Blakroc. In order to release the album, Damon Dash founded an independent record label to distribute it.
In 2011, a trailer for a potential Blakroc 2 album surfaced, sparking interest. However, The Black Keys' drummer Patrick Carney clarified that the album was not coming out soon, explaining that the trailer was an unauthorized video created around 2009. Although the band had recorded about eight songs at that time, the project was never completed. A publicist confirmed that there was no release date for Blakroc 2. The trailer was posted by Damon Dash's DD172 media collective on YouTube.
