Filed under: Black Music Month
When Run-DMC joined forces with aging rockers Aerosmith on the breakthrough 1986 hit, 'Walk This Way,' the collaboration bridged any cultural gap that had previously existed between hip-hop and rock. The partnership also made it clear when you combine rap with another seemingly divergent genre, the resultant hybrids can actually sound pretty great when done right.
That's why for this Black Music Month feature, we've chosen a baker's dozen of the most unexpected, and memorable, rap collaborations between rappers and musicians from the pop, rock, R&B, country and jazz worlds.
13. 'Unity' by Afrika Bambaataa and James Brown. When the hip-hop pioneer and the Godfather of Soul combined on this 1984 song, it represented an effective olive branch between Brown and entire rap music community. For years, rap producers had liberally sampled grooves from his funk records (including his soulful grunts). This record was the first effort where Brown actually performed live (and arguably, willingly) with a rapper. The chorus simply states his good intentions: 'Peace, Unity, Love and Having Fun..."
12. 'Numb/Encore' by Jay-Z and Linkin Park. This combined effort between the Brooklyn rapper and the California rockers from the latter's 2004 album 'Collision Course' proved incredibly fruitful. The song, which mashes up Linkin Park's 'Numb' with lyrics from Jay-Z's 'Encore,' won a Grammy for Best Rap Sung Collaboration and received major radio play and stayed on the Billboard charts for nearly half of 2005. Recent proof that rock and rap audiences can bang heads together.
11. 'Fallin'' by De La Soul and Teenage Fanclub. This track is just one of many great rock-rap hybrids on the 'Judgment Night' soundtrack, which also included songs with Cypress Hill and Pearl Jam, Run-DMC and Living Colour and the title track by Onyx and Biohazard. But where those aggro songs featured lots of fierce, crunching guitars, this De La Soul interpretation of Tom Petty's 'Free Fallin' is a mellower meditation on the pitfalls of fame -- a point that the gone-missing Teenage Fanclub can probably appreciate these days.
11. 'Missing You' by Puffy feat. Faith Evans & Sting. Back when he was known as Puff Daddy, the Bad Boy Records exec recorded this tribute to his dead protege and friend, the Notorious B.I.G. Sampling the melody of the Police's 'Every Breath You Take,' Puff revamps the original song's lyrics to reflect his painful loss. But the unexpected part comes in when Sting actually hits the stage, singing with the choir and widow Faith Evans at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards. The former Police frontman adds a refined gravitas to Puff's heartfelt but awkward performance.
10. 'Superman' by Snoop Dogg and Willie Nelson. That it took so long for country music and hip-hop's consummate weed smoking geniuses to actually reunite on a song together might be a mild surprise to some fans. (Nelson appeared on Snoop's 2008 album 'Ego Trippin'.) But the wait was worth it with this country blues track. Who knew Snoop had such a great singing voice? If he ever gets too old to rap, he could easily transition to country music.
9 .'Lougin' by Guru feat. Donald Byrd. During the '90s, hip-hop had a love affair with jazz. Groups like Gang Starr, Digable Planets and A Tribe Called Quest regularly sampled old jazz records, creating some of their biggest hits. The late Guru's Jazzmatazz series was the era's best example of how well the two genres sounded together. Here, he enlists the incomparable Donald Byrd to blow trumpet over a smoothed-out hip-hop beat.
8. 'Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey' by Body Count's Ice-T and Jane's Addiction. This Sly Stone song was meant to push buttons when the funk god released it in the 1970s. But Ice-T, when he took his hiatus from rap to rock-out with his band Body Count, and Perry Ferrell turn the notch up further on their cover version. This performance is from Jane's Addiction's 'Gift,' a semi-autobiographical film about the singer with loads of live concert footage. Chilling.
7. 'Wicked' by Ice Cube and Red Hot Chili Peppers. After Ice Cube left NWA, he seemed to really hit his stride, releasing some of the hardest-hitting hip-hop ever. This song from his 1992 'Predator' EP touched on the riots in Los Angeles which split the city after the Rodney King beating verdict. He rhymed: "April 29 was power to the people, and we might just see a sequel.' RHCP's Flea and Anthony Keidis romp through the awesomely chaotic-looking video.
6. 'Friends' by Jodi Watley and Eric B & Rakim. It's hard to imagine now but there was a time that hip-hop and R&B were musical adversaries with most rappers of the mind that soul music was just too soft-sounding. But this 1989 track changed all that. Who else could make rap and R&B (a decidedly uptempo quasi-club track at that) sound like they belong together better than Rakim?
5. 'Mama Said Knock You Out,' by LL Cool J and Pop's Cool Joe. The Queens rapper ripped the stage when he performed on this inaugural rap edition of MTV's 'Unplugged' series in 1991. The energy he's able to command as the band rolls through his major comeback tune is amazing. Though he gets teased for using too much deodorant - you can see white globs caked in his pits - LL Cool J will always be remembered for this killer show.
4. 'Stan' by Eminem and Elton John. The album version of this song features an unlikely sample from pop singer Dido, but Slim Shady enlisted the Piano Man to sing the hook at the 2001 Grammy Awards ceremony. The duet set off a shitstorm of controversy. Gay and lesbian advocacy groups like GLAAD condemned John for doing the performance given Em's sometimes homophobic lyrics. But Sir Elton just shrugged it off, claiming the duet was a bonding moment for he and the rapper.
2. 'Bring the Noise' by Public Enemy and Anthrax. Just like Run-DMC had done a few years earlier, Public Enemy teamed with a rock act. But not over the hill rockers. They chose speed-metal outfit Anthrax to remake the PE track. The original song was the most in-your-face and discordant hip-hop at the time. When Chuck, Flav joined Anthrax, the collab took the song to another level, making the militant rap group hugely popular amongst white audiences. Far from a sell-out moment, though. PE remained as edgy and as politically progressive for several more years.
1. 'Walk This Way,' by Run-DMC and Aerosmith. Legend has it that Run-DMC's late DJ Jam Master Jay would cut parts of rock records like Billy Squires' 'Big Beat' and Aerosmith's 'Walk This Way' for Run and DMC to rhyme over even before the collaboration came to fruition. The resulting track is rap's singular breakthrough moment, when it became a legitimate mainstream phenomenon. The song both resurrected Aerosmith's flagging career and made Run-DMC international superstars in one fell swoop.