Rock. Rap. Two great tastes that all too often taste terrible together. Of course, there have been moments of inspiration in the history of this nuts-and-gum, together-at-last pseudo-genre. Take, for instance, the soundtrack to Judgement Night, the first high-profile attempt to mesh the two in longplayer form. A decade later, Jay Z and Linkin Park's Collision Course banked off the ease of "mash-up" techniques enabled by the latest computer technology. And, of course, there have been earlier attempts to reconcile these disparate musical approaches: Run D.M.C. were straddling the lines as early as "Rock Box" before literally breaking down walls on "Walk This Way."
Even that early, however, rock and rap were generally kept at a distance; for every Anthrax/Public Enemy collab, you had Schoolly D arguing "I Don't Like Rock'N'Roll." In our mind, though, the genre never really lived up to its potential. By the late ’90s, nu-metal had established the rock-rap group as di rigueur in the musical landscape. It's easy to argue that it was mainly creatively bankrupt, because it mostly was. But more of the problem was that rap-rock, whatever its intentions, primarily appealed to rock fans. There wasn't much crossover in the other direction; Limp Bizkit weren't getting that Hot 97 airplay.
This is why we're here: To figure out how rappers and rock artists might actually get along, to determine the formula by which rap and rock might truly coexist in a productive manner. This can't be a mindless mash-up of the most popular rappers and their rock counterparts; they must be finessed—intuitively maneuvered into a congruent coexistence. Without further ado, here are 10 Rock/Hip-Hop Collaborations We’d Co-Sign.