Mark Ronson: Here Comes The Fuzz : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Hater alert: mark ronson sometimes gets a bad rap as a "celebrity DJ." The silver spoon in Ronson's mouth -- he's the son of a Manhattan socialite -- often blinds critics to his skills on the wheels of steel and in the studio (he co-produced Nikka Costa's supremely funky 2001 debut, Everybody Got Their Something). Ronson's first album as an artist, Here Comes the Fuzz, may stop the ill will: With guests such as Sean Paul, Q-Tip and Ghostface Killah alongside rock guys such as Rivers Cuomo and Jack White of the White Stripes, Ronson serves up a grab bag of pumping beats - and plays almost all of the instruments on the album. The party spills out all over the map: Mos Def and M.O.P rhyme over a mosh-pit-worthy rock-rap track on "On the Run"; Nappy Roots get crunk with back-porch funk on "Bluegrass Stain'd." As rapper Rhymefest aptly points out on "Bout to Get Ugly," Ronson plays "rock & roll, mixed it with the black shit/M.O.P? AC/DC?/That's it!"

MATT DIEHL
(RS 930, September 4, 2003)