Jay-Z, Rolling Stone tout Doomtree's "Wugazi" record (Wu-Tang + Fugazi)

It sounds like a fun joke -- until you hear it. And a lot of people are hearing the Doomtree-issued Wugazi album nowadays. The "Grey Album"-style mash-up collection is a surprisingly cohesive and rather mind-blowing blend of New York's blunt-toking Wu-Tang Clan hip-hop platoon with Washington, D.C.'s straight-edged hardcore band Fugazi.

Titled "13 Chambers" (a nod to Fugazi's album "13 Songs" and Wu-Tang's "36 Chambers"), the record is the brainchild of Doomtree rapper/producer Cecil Otter and his pal Swiss Andy, known from the local bands Swiss Army and the Millionth Word. The 13-track album has earned not one but two rave write-ups at RollingStone.com and another in the L.A. Weekly. And perhaps the biggest plug of all was on Jay-Z's influential Life + Times blog, where the track "Nowhere to Wait" was posted.

An example of the madcap melding involved in the year-long making of the record: "Nowhere to Wait" blends the RZA-helmed Gravediggaz track "Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide" with Fugazi's "Closed Captioned" and "Waiting Room." You can even see an impressive song-by-song breakdown of the whole shebang at RollingStone.com.

As is often the case with such projects, the legal/copyright issues surrounding it are as gray as the "Grey Album" itself, so it likely will never be available commercially. The "Grey Album" certainly did good things for its maker, though, even though it never went on sale (the dude's name was Danger Mouse).

Look for links to download the album via Doomtree's site or at the new www.Wugazi.com, which also has a player where you can sample the tracks before you download them.