DJ Danger Mouse and Native American Culture

What is a new idea?

In 2004 DJ Danger Mouse released The Grey Album. In my opinion, one of the greatest rap albums ever released. He took Jay-Z’s Black Album and remixed it with The Beatles White Album. This was the first rap album I ever owned. A bootlegged CD I stumbled over when I was listening to a sibling’s music. Little did I know the ideas that shaped this album would later be an integral part of how I, and you too if you’re honest, coach.

Encore was probably one of my favorite songs on the whole album. Interestingly at one stage Jay – Z says “When I come back like Jordan, wearing the 4-5; It ain’t to play games with you […]” which takes me strangely, and tenuously, to my next point.

Having moved to the United States four years ago to pursue a career in coaching I quickly realized that I was not up to date with American sporting culture. Like every good sports nerd I took to the local book stores and started reading. Biography after biography of different coaches and athletes until I arrived at something special. Eleven Rings – The Soul of Success by Phil Jackson. Phil Jackson is a highly decorated basketball coach who does things a little differently. Over his life he immersed himself in meditation, humanistic psychology and Native American Philosophy.

Phil Jackson and the Michael Jordan led Chicago Bulls used to start every practice, and finish it, with everyone standing in a circle. The circle is a hugely important shape in Native American culture. Shortly after reading Eleven Rings I was at dinner with a friend. They told me a little more about the importance of the circle to Native American culture. This is a lesson that I will remember forever. In Native American culture, it is assumed that all things are circles, and every person has a place on the circle. From this place, we are also granted one point of view. We can choose to spend our life in one of two ways, looking at things from our point of view and getting a really deep understanding of this. Or, we can work our way around the circle, experiencing and understanding everyone else’s point of view. Within their culture it is believed that working your way around the circle is the way to fully understand the world.

I pose a question, when DJ Danger Mouse started with Jay-Z’s Black album and added the music from The Beatles, wasn’t he doing just that? Working his way around the circle, trying to understand different viewpoints, or mix different approaches into his music.

Much like the rest of the world I spend far too much time online. Recently I watched a wonderful TED talk, “Creativity is a remix” by Kirby Ferguson. In it he proposes a simple idea, nothing is original. In fact a lot of what I’ve talked about so far is inspired by this Ted Talk! Probably more closely than I set out to achieve. 

In Mick McKinnon's last piece he talks about how we should be trying to find the edge, and about how we all start out as a cover band. I couldn’t agree more with this! But I caution coaches to look far beyond the limits of our sport to become something special. Only by running far away from our initial influences can we truly figure out what works for us. Look at other sports, other cultures, other fields entirely. Read books, watch movies, but take notes. Find the lesson in everything you like or enjoy, and then find a way to relate that back to coaching. The teams I work with know why we watch film on ourselves, not because of anything I’ve told them. Because Rafiki told them.

When doing a little research for this piece I stumbled across this article. and in it is a simple quote that I think we should all remember "What you know, you do not own. And what you do not own, you must share."

So think about it, what are you doing to make your way around the circle. Whose ideas are you changing, and remixing to make your won? If you're struggling who do you call on? I spend as much time as I can talking to coaches from other sports, hoping to steal something I can use with my team. I'd encourage you to do the same.