''Cheat Codes'' is a collaborative studio album by American songwriter/producer Danger Mouse and American emcee

Black Thought Tariq Luqmaan Trotter (born October 3, 1973), better known as Black Thought, is an American rapper, actor and the lead MC of the Philadelphia-based hip hop group the Roots, which he co-founded with drummer Questlove (Ahmir Thompson). Regarded a ...

, released on August 12, 2022 by BMG. It followed three albums of solo work for Black Thought, but was Danger Mouse's first hip-hop album since ''

The Mouse and the Mask ''The Mouse and the Mask'' is an album by Danger Doom, a collaboration between the hip hop artists Danger Mouse and MF Doom. It was released on October 11, 2005, by the independent punk label Epitaph Records in the United States. It was also r ...

'' in 2005. Dates for the start of the album's production differ, including 2005 when the pair worked on their first tracks together, 2017 when they first had the idea for an album, and 2018 when the bulk of the work was started. After delays due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

and tracklist changes, it was first announced in a 2020 radio interview with Black Thought where he mentioned its draft title ''Dangerous Thoughts''.

Promotional Campaign

The first single from the album, "No Gold Teeth", was issued on May 11, 2022. It was accompanied by a promotional video directed by the creative team UNCANNY, in which Black Thought raps while his head is permanently obscured by changing images. The second single to be released was "Because" on June 8. This was promoted by another UNCANNY directed video, released nearly a month later on July 7. A third single and accompanying video, "Aquamarine", followed on July 13. The final pre-LP single, "Strangers", emerged on August 9, three days before the album's release. A promotional video for the song followed on August 12 to coincide with the release of the album. After the album's release, a video for the MF DOOM collaboration, "Belize", was released on October 18.

Critical reception

Upon release, ''Cheat Codes'' was met with critical acclaim. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...

score of 83, based on 17 reviews. Reviewing the album for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

, Andy Kellman described it as a combination of "'60s and '70s psych, prog, and soul recordings that are moody, trippy, and sometimes eerie. The crisp if soot-coated drums, smeared strings, moaning organs, and gnarled guitars are all very compatible with Thought, who scythes through it all with unparalleled wordplay delivered with surgical precision." US President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

listed "Belize" as one of his favourite tracks of 2022.

Track listing

All tracks are produced by Danger Mouse.

Samples

* "Sometimes" contains samples from

Gwen McCrae Gwen McCrae ( Mosley, December 21, 1943) is an American singer, best known for her 1975 hit " Rockin' Chair". Life and career 1960s–1970s Gwen was the youngest of five children, She began performing in local clubs as a teenager, and singing ...

. * "The Darkest Part" contains samples from

Kiki Dee Pauline Matthews (born 6 March 1947), better known by her stage name Kiki Dee, is an English singer. Known for her blue-eyed soul vocals, she was the first female singer from the UK to sign with Motown's Tamla Records. Dee is best known for h ...

's "Rest My Head". * "No Gold Teeth" contains samples from

Hugh Masekela Hugh Ramapolo Masekela (4 April 1939 – 23 January 2018) was a South African trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, singer and composer who was described as "the father of South African jazz". Masekela was known for his jazz compositions and for ...

's " Stop". * "Because" contains samples from "You Don't Have to Worry" by Doris & Kelly. * "Belize" contains samples from Federal Duck. * "Identical Deaths" contains samples from "Future Recollections" by Raw Material. * "Strangers" contains samples from Philwit & Pegasus. * "Saltwater" contains samples from "L'Amico Suicida" by Biglietto Per L'Inferno. * "Violas & Lupitas" contains samples from the film ''

Harlem Nights ''Harlem Nights'' is a 1989 American crime comedy-drama film starring and directed by Eddie Murphy, who also wrote. The film co-stars Richard Pryor, Michael Lerner, Danny Aiello, Redd Foxx (in his last film appearance before his death in 1991) ...

''.

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2022 albums Black Thought albums Danger Mouse (musician) albums Albums produced by Danger Mouse (musician)