Several ambitious hip-hop producers have taken it upon themselves to remix Jay-Z’s recent Black Album with their own beats in the past few months, yet none of the projects have been as creative and intriguing as Danger Mouse’s Grey Album. The color-coded concept finds Jay’s lyrical mind-bursts on top of newly constructed beats culled entirely from The Beatles’ self-titled, far-ranging 1968 opus commonly referred to as the White Album.

And although you’d be hard-pressed to procure this copyright-infringing album in record stores, it can be tracked down on internet sites like hiphopsite.com.

For a guy who is known for clowning around in a fluffy full-body mouse costume, the Grey Album is anything but a goofy novelty act. As an up-and-coming West Coast beat-miner who produced one of last year’s most exciting hip-hop albums, Ghetto Pop Life, DM doesn’t just throw Jay’s vocals over songs like “Blackbird” all willy-nilly. Each of the 12 tracks on the Grey Album is finely tuned, the precision cut-and-paste sampling DM exhibits often mind-blowing.

Swiping the best drum and instrumental breaks from the White Album, the producer consistently turns out head-banging beats that sometimes even trump their Black Album counterparts.

On “Justify My Thug,” DJ Quik’s original gangsta-thumping disco beat is replaced with a rat-a-tat snare-based track that includes a few spare acoustic guitar chords taken from the intro to Paul McCartney’s Old West farce “Rocky Raccoon.” Although there is no logical reason for this new-fangled, Beatle-fied “Justify My Thug” to work, it does. Brilliantly.

Another stand-out is “Public Service Announcement.” The Black Album version is a straight banger of the highest order: Sky-high organ licks play off a grimy bass line as Jay boasts, “I’m like Ch