Beats Never Rust is a project taking a journey through Neil Young's past, but in a hip-hop perspective. Originated by Mike O'Brien and Danny Falsafi, the idea began as a 20-minute tribute to Neil Young in an attempt to capture the human's attention span at it's limit. As time passed, however, the songs expanded- becoming longer and more intricate. The brainchild of the project is Mike O'Brien, an avid Neil Young fan and someone not afraid to dive into crates of samples. Stopping not only at album recordings, Michael reached into Neil's catalog taking from such regions as: live recordings, bootlegs, and string quartet / piano tributes. To finish it off, Michael's last duty was to search for Neil quotes to scatter throughout the album to give it more of a hip-hop feel. Danny Fal, a hip hop producer of over 10 years, was dragged out of retirement for the project. Influenced heavily by Rza, Dr. Dre, and DJ Premier, Danny dusted off his Windows computer and opened up Acid Pro on April 7th to sample Cowgirl in the Sand. Towards the end of the beat-making process O'Brien turned to Danny and mentioned the idea of a 20-minute hip-hop tribute to the Godfather of Grunge. Over the course of the next two months, the duo dedicated their time to Neil, hip-hop, and Dutch Masters. To add a cherry on the top, O'Brien enlisted the help of a friend with the same name as him, Mike O'Brien, to create an album cover. Taking once again from Neil, the other Mike O'Brien was instructed to draw a hipper version of Neil's infamous "Rust Never Sleeps" and banged it out in a matter of minutes. Lastly, while the duo focused on simplicity and authenticity they brought in one outside force for the music on the album. Trumpet player of The New Retro- a bluesy funk-rock band from College Park, MD managed by Mike O'Brien- Dave Matthews blew his horn on a few tracks. Much like the other Mike O'Brien being able to bang out a drawing with 1 or 2 simple instructions, Dave came into the "studio," heard 3 songs, and in return played the songs by ear note by note.