SCRATCH: The Jay-Z/Coldplay Mash-Up Project Viva La Hova Is Almost Here

You're probably scratching your heads. What is Viva La Hova?

Basically, it's a Jay-Z/Coldplay mash-up/remix project put together by Mick Boogie and Terry Urban. I'll let Mick tell it:

It's no secret Shawn Carter and Chris Martin have been friends and collaborators in recent years, most recently on Jay's "Beach Chair" and Kanye West's "Homecoming." But it was their first actual Coldplay collabo... the recently released "Lost!" remix that inspired this project to come to fruition.

In addition to self-producing a few tracks ourselves, we reached out to some of our favorite producers in the game... from Jay-Z's collaborator 9th Wonder, The Kickdrums (50 Cent, TI) and Cookin' Soul (The Game, Dipset) to up and comers like 6th Sense, nVMe and Garbs Infinite [ed note: and Gooch]

After assigning all the producers samples and snippets that we felt fit their musical talents, we began the process of assembling as many Jay-Z vocal tracks as we could find. As the submissions came back, one by one, we decided which Jay-Z verse would fit this particular interpretation of Coldplay's sounds.

As we began piecing together the correct verses to match the correct beats, it became clear how truly amazing this project really is. This is what real music is supposed to sound like. The lyrical elegance of Shawn Carter, the vocal magic of Chris Martin, the finely tuned instruments of Coldplay, the creative visions by our team of producers, and lastly, our analysis of which Jay verse best fit each track.

If you love Jay-Z and you're not into Coldplay, this is for you. If you love Coldplay, but don't mess with hip-hop, this is for you. If you love all good music, this is definitely for you.

When Mick hit me with the concept of the project, it was a must that I get down. I had a lot of fun working with the Jay vocals, as I'm sure everyone involved did, but for me it was because I've never actually messed with the whole remixing Jay-Z thing. And Coldplay, what can you really say about them? They've got so many tunes that are reworkable in a hip-hop context. So it was dope. I think folks will really appreciate and vibe with this project. Keep checking www.VivaLaHova.com, it'll be available for free download there in a few days.

Here's a Viva La Hova teaser.

[Audio://townsquare.media/site/812/files/2008/10/viva-la-hova-bangers.mp3]