"Why did you buy this album? I don't know why you did. You're stupid."

Perhaps these words, mumbled by the authentic voice of Brak from the cartoon shows "The Brak Show" and "Space Ghost: Coast to Coast," aren't the most conventional lyrics to open an album, but then again Danger Doom's The Mouse and The Mask strays away from everything conventional — actually the album strays away from everything with just a scrap of sanity to it. Inspired by the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim lineup, Danger Doom, the collaboration of Danger Mouse and MF Doom, have created a senseless, literally cartoonish album that may not require its listeners to be stupid, but they should be, at the very least, in the mood to hear some tunes that are quite loony.

With The Mouse and The Mask, Doom, still riding the success from Madvillany-, his collaboration with Madlib, and Dangermouse, made famous by his production of The Grey Album, the remix of Jay-Z's' vocals from The Black Album with the instrumentals from The Beatles' White Album, work so well together one would think they've been doing it for years. It was the perfect project for DM and Doom, two self-described cartoonheads; the latter of which even admits to conversing with cartoons when he's alone.

It would be an easy, yet premature, assumption to automatically regard this album as an immature and trivial project created by two attention-hungry hip-hop artists. The Mouse and The Mask, however, is surprisingly intelligent and well-crafted. Much like the sarcastic cartoons aired during Adult Swim, this album screams post-modern. It layers the old school with the new, innovative rhymes of Doom atop of DM's experimental beats, garnished with the dim-witted voices of cartoon characters like Master Shake and Harvey Birdman. The collaboration of Doom and DM generates a musical collage in its most complicated form — a nearly seamless woven web of rhymes and melodies. The album's 14 smooth, Pink Floyd transitioned tracks, totaling a modest 40 minutes, piece together slices of pop culture, creating a work of art in itself.

The relationship between the artists and the cartoons is more than the superficial, marketed marriage between Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny. The cartoons smoothly swim in and out of the album without producing wake, drowning any initial assumptions of the cross-promotional reasons for the album's production. Listeners don't need to be avid Adult Swim addicts to understand the genius of The Mouse and The Mask and they won't feel compelled to flip on the Cartoon Network after hearing the album. They're two separate genres fusing together, but still clearly in their own lanes.

The rap/cartoon hybrid, though, makes just as much sense as the collaboration of Doom and DM. Both rap and cartoons trivialize violence and are often the scapegoat to juvenile felonies. And although Danger Doom resurrects a handful of old school characters, like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Judy Jetson, their album centers mainly on the new wave of cartoon satire.

Similarly, the release of The Mouse and The Mask suggests that hip-hop is heading in a more slapstick direction. Rappers these days are too busy knitting clothing, being good fathers and watching cartoons to deal with the drama of murders, drugs and rapes. And if they do find themselves in jail, it's because of something as presidential as perjury. The album's track "Vats of Urine" grotesquely mocks the intensity of the hip-hop universe, stating, "Everybody talkin' 'bout pistols, gats it's boring/ He came with a new topic to flip you, vats of urine."

It is, however, the telling track "Old School," featuring famous rapper Talib Kweli, that disregards all things conventional rap and focuses simply on the duo's undying devotion to cartoons. Doom claims that cartoons "inspire my decision to be open and listen/ But folks got it all twisted, like a yoga position." Like the title implies, this song takes it back — back to those lazy Saturday mornings in front of the TV, and it takes it back to a time before "lyrical skills had to do with killin' a cat."

Despite its post-modern, sarcastic vibe, the entire album is somewhat reflective of the old school. Eerie violins, Asian strings, Greek dance music, '60s synth-pop and '70s funk work together to suggest the rejuvenating and reminiscent rush Doom and DM must have felt while recording.

Although the track "Space Ho's" reflects a 1960s Hanna-Barbera cartoon hero who was revived in 1994 for the cartoon "Space Ghost: Coast to Coast," it is the nostalgic, hippie-influenced lounge music that transports the song back in time. The entire song is an argument concerning Doom's pledge to take over Space Ghost's talk show, and it brings the album to its pinnacle of hilarity.

You may not know why you bought this album, but you are guaranteed to be glad you did. The beats and the rhymes individually aren't worthy of much praise, but cohered together, this album offers 40 minutes of commercial-free bliss.

Grade: AB