In a quest to reach another audience or to simply push their artistic boundaries, artists love to collaborate with artists from another musical genre. Over the years, the bridge between hip hop and others styles such as electro, rock, country, World Music, reggae, edm, house, etc, has been gapped more than once. If certain of these collaborations worked and became huge hits, others did not do well and hurt the artists in the long run. TRACE looks back at some of the most unexpected collaborations:
Eminem & Elton John ‘Stan’
Slim Shady has often found himself in a lot of controversies. Among them, the rapper has been judged as homophobic for some of his lyrics. During the 2001 Grammy Awards, Eminem brought Elton John to perform his stalker anthem ‘Stan’.
Michael Jackson feat The Notorious BIG ‘This Time Around’
Michael Jackson’s HIStory was packed with collaborations. The one between the King of Pop and the King of New York The Notorious BIG was one of the highlights of the project. A very enjoyable track.
Kanye West feat. Bon Iver ‘Lost In The World’
It is not surprising to find Yeezus in this list as Kanye loves to work with a lot of artists from different field. Yet, many were surprised to find Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon to reinterpret ‘Woods’ for his My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy single.
Jay Z feat Chris Martin ‘Beach Chair’
While his ‘little brother’ Kanye West always expressed his wish to work with Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Jay Z beat him to the punch on his albumKingdom Come
Weezer feat. Lil Wayne ‘Can’t Stop Partying’
Way before Lil Wayne embrassed his rock star persona to the fullest, he appeared on a track of Weezer, an American rock band, called ‘Can’t Stop Partying’.
Timbaland feat She Wants Revenge ‘Time”
On his 2007’s albumShock Value, Timbaland collaborated with a lot of artists including The Hives, Elton John and Fall Out Boy. But one of the most surprising track was ‘Time’ with the Goth duo She Wants Revenge.
Snoop Dogg & Akshay Kumar ‘Singh Is King’
Whenever there is money to be made, Snoop is sure to be found! The Dogg has done ton of collaborations with artists from different musical genres. However, one of the most unexpected was for a Bollywood movie with the main actor.
