Blakroc

After Damon Dash, co-founder and former co-owner of Roc-A-Fella Records, began listening to the Black Keys (which he says quickly became his favorite band), he reached out to the musicians to meet in person. Dash suggested they enter the studio with his friend and associate, New York City-based rapper Jim Jones, with whom Dash had recently partnered to form Splash Records at the time.

While recording with co-producer and engineer Joel Hamilton at Studio G, Brooklyn rapper Mos Def interrupted the session and ended up recording with them as well. With new artists being called in to work on the album, it was completed after eleven weeks of recording. Included in the project are vocals from deceased rapper and former Roc-A-Fella Records artist Ol' Dirty Bastard—tapes that were signed over to his brief Roc4Life venture with Def Jam, with the intention of an eventual album release. Issues with the licensing of these recordings have led to the track that features him ("Coochie") to be removed from all digital versions of the album.

The album was released on November 24th, 2009 and was generally received well by critics. It reached Number 1 and Number 7 on the US Billboard Heatseakers chart and US Billboard Top Rap Albums respectively.

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In early September 2011, a trailer surfaced on the YouTube channel of Damon Dash's DD172 media collective for "Blakroc 2". In an interview with Atlanta radio station 92.9 Dave FM later that month, Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney said, "Blakroc 2 is not coming out soon... there are no plans for that." Carney said that the trailer is actually an unauthorized video that was pieced together around 2009. They recorded "about eight songs" at the time, but the album was never completed.