7 of the Most Unforgettable Rap-Rock Crossovers in History
Featuring Sonic Youth's diss track.
Genre crossovers are a tricky thing.
Many bands have bolstered the genre: Groups like Beastie Boys, Death Grips, Twenty One Pilots, and Rage Against the Machine have given their own hip-hop spin to traditional alternative music, while rappers like Post Malone and Lil Peep have used rock-inspired beats to varying degrees of success. Most exciting of all, though, is when rock bands, who are strictly known for rock, team up with rappers, who are strictly known for rap.
Sometimes it's corny, sometimes it's thrilling, but a good rap-rock collaboration is hard to forget. Here are just a few examples—the cheesy, the bold, and everything in between.
Jay-Z and Linkin Park: “Numb/Encore”
Linkin Park's industrial, nu metal breed of rock is a perfect canvas for hip-hop facelifts. Their mashup of "Numb" with Jay-Z's "Encore"—both songs released in 2003—remains arguably one of the most seamless examples of rap-rock collaborations. The song won a Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, served as the lead single for Linkin Park and Jay-Z's Collision Course mashup EP, and it might've helped spawn Bey-Z's affinity for indie rock.
▲Weezer ft. Lil Wayne: “Can’t Stop Partying”
Raditude certainly isn't Weezer's best album. Or their fifth-best album. Or maybe even their tenth-best album. But they didn't do it alone; the year before Lil Wayne dropped his infamous rockist album, 2010's Rebirth, he lent a verse for "Can't Stop Partying," if only to deliver the opportune lyric: "it's Weezer and it's Weezy." The song is great if you're a 15-year-old who's overly stoked about their parents going out of town for the weekend.
▲Kanye West ft. Bon Iver: “Lost In the World”
Kanye West became a bit of a recluse after his controversial outburst against Taylor Swift at the 2009 VMAs. He holed up by himself in Oahu, Hawaii to begin work on his magnum opus, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and wrote the verses of "Lost In the World" as a love poem to his new girlfriend, Kim Kardashian.
Kanye called up Justin Vernon—the similarly-elusive mastermind known as Bon Iver—expressing an interest in sampling the folksy songwriter's tune "Woods." Vernon obliged and flew out to Hawaii to record, resulting in perhaps the most enchanting song on MBDTF.
Sonic Youth ft. Chuck D: “Kool Thing”
Kim Gordon, vocalist of Sonic Youth and one of the coolest women in indie rock, has noted her affinity for old-school hip-hop—but you should probably avoid asking her about LL Cool J. She wrote "Kool Thing" after interviewing the emcee for Spin, which unfortunately proved the two shared few similar beliefs. Though LL is never mentioned by name in the track, Chuck D makes a cameo to represent him: "I just wanna know, what are you gonna do for me? / I mean, are you gonna liberate us girls from male white corporate oppression?" Gordon taunts him in the bridge. Pretty bold for 1990.
▲Run-DMC and Aerosmith: “Walk This Way”
Aerosmith were already basking in the success of "Dream On" well before getting a boost from Run-DMC, but the New York rap crew weren't familiar with the band until producer Rick Rubin suggested they remake "Walk This Way" over a decade after its initial release. Run-DMC hesitated, but ultimately agreed. To their surprise, the song was played on both urban and rock radio stations, marking the first highly-successful hip-hop crossover and spawning a major resurgence in Aerosmith's popularity. As its duelling music video depicts, it tore down walls.
▲The Roots ft. Joanna Newsom: “Right On”
Though the music of Joanna Newsom is considerably more baroque-pop than rock, her harp work still caught the ears of the Roots, who sampled Newsom's track "The Book of Right-On" on their 2010 album How I Got Over. Newsom also provided newly-recorded overdubs for the updated track, simply titled "Right On," and marked an especially creative crossover.
▲Kid Cudi ft. MGMT and Ratatat: “Pursuit of Happiness”
When Kid Cudi released his debut album Man on the Moon: The End of Day, psychedelic rock duo MGMT were still riding the high of early singles like "Kids," "Time to Pretend," and "Electric Feel." The pairing of the rapper and the band perfectly emblemized the zeitgeist of the late 2000s; throw in production from guitar-heavy electronic duo Ratatat, and it's as vivid as an acid trip.
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