Crossing Over: When Indie Bands Cover Gucci Mane, Kanye West, and Soulja Boy

Well, Deer Tick did it again. This raucous band seems to win over fans of every genre despite their fairly clear-cut country roots. The Rhode Island group tackles the island rhythms of Sean Kingston's uptempo yet suicidal veneration of one very, very good-looking girl, adding their own harmonies, laments and lead singer John McCauley's signature growl.

Instead of feeling like a swaying Jamaican jam, their version gives the song a '40s rock and roll vibe that feels right at home—almost channeling some Del Shannon "Little Town Flirt" vibes. Either way, the tongue-in-cheek fatalism in this song rolls just under the radar of its carefree beat. Both musicians perform this song with an air of resigned sadness though, hyperbolic suicide never sounded so romantic—and the snippet of "Stand By Me" that McCauley throws in at the end reveals the respect he has for this track.

What happens when two of the most cult-followed musical acts of their respective times and genres collide? Magic, that's what. During Coachella in 2010, the indie rock duo ventured a brief tribute to Gucci Mane by covering his "Lemonade" and the crowd—at least those with enough hip-hop knowledge to recognize what was happening—went crazy. Although this brief clip is only the chorus of song it makes sense that Victoria Legrand and Alex Scully would be drawn to it because the clamorous piano riff feels like what a Beach House song written in the '90s would sound like. When Scully recreates the riff on his electric guitar and the booming drums are added, the song assumes an eeriness that Gucci's version never conveyed.

jj are a Swedish pop duo that is well-known for their love of hip-hop and R&B covers. The group has done both Akon's "Troublemaker" as well as Jeremih's lascivious "Birthday Sex" and the first track on their most recent EP High Summer borrows whole lines from Lil Wayne and T.I. Clearly, Elin Kastlander and Joakim Benon aren't merely touring hip-hop for the catchy bar or the sick beat—hell they've even collaborated with Ne-Yo.

Their best cover though, is a take on Game's Lil Wayne sampling "My Life." Like most good covers, jj's rendition remains true to the spirit of the original, but Elin totally changes the pronunciations and rhythms of the song. There's no beat here, just sparse piano. In this case, jj's artistic license pays off—the cover is a stunning homage to a soul-searching song.

This cover might be the most enthusiastic, free-spirited one I've ever seen. Although Lissie clearly would've had to practice this, memorize the words, have her band learn the chords etc., it somehow still feels like it was just a totally spur of the moment decision. Not only that, but the fact that she tells the crowd she's going to take a shot before she performs it makes the moment that much more magical.

Things get even more meta if you listen to Schoolboy Q's latest album, Habits and Contradictions which samples Lissie's cover of this Kid Cudi song on "Hands on the Wheel" a track that also includes a feature from A$AP Rocky. Stream Lissie's blissed out Kid Cudi impression below.

Blackstreet's 1996 hit "No Diggity" went all the way to Billboard's number one spot, won a Grammy, and even made it to number nine on the charts over in the UK—so it makes sense that even obscure London-based rock group The Klaxons are familiar with the cult classic. The British rockers covered Blackstreet's hit back in 1996 for a Radio 1 Compilation covers series. The group sticks to the original beat's head-bobbing insistence but shy away from attempting to copy Blackstreet's ad-libs. The Klaxons delivering the classic rhymes with all the swag they can muster and establish guitar much more prominently in the mix too. The cover is clean, catchy and well-done, they almost sound as good as Blackstreet—almost.

Ray LaMontagne's voice feels like a big, cozy hug every single time I hear it—there's something flawless about his warm, expansive vocals that hits all the right notes emotionally and sonically. So when the folk singer decided to cover Gnarls Barkley's slick runaway hit "Crazy" with his warbled, acoustic style, no one was mad. In the original, Cee Lo Green flows over a choppy beat bolstered by soul samples and production elements from Danger Mouse, but LaMontagne's stripped down version hits with the same desperation, even if he only has an acoustic guitar for support.

This is a song that calls out those who try to control others, that celebrates the upheaval of larger societal pressures and encourages letting go, so it fits in with the aesthetic that Ray has cultivated from the beginning. His cover feels like a shared mournful sigh, like him and Cee Lo have more in common than we ever would've guessed.

Though this cover has been around for awhile, there's no denying its chilling, gender-bending power. Hearing the slight, blonde pixie voice of Anya Marina dance through the rhymes that T.I. trudged out in this explicit, even alarming, track is a study in juxtaposition that will not soon be surpassed. The terrifying clarity in Marina's version reveals more about the culture of drinking and hook-up culture than we'd care to know—at least not out of Marina's mouth. Then again, what if this song resulted in an ultimate upheaval of norms about who pays for the drinks and how hook-up culture operates? That'd be kind of insanely awesome.

Unlike many indie rock performers who seem to view their rap and hip-hop counterparts with a sort of stand-offish gleeful irony, Lykke Li is 100% in. She dances and sways to the signature loop, re-created by her live band, with the same fervor and intensity that she inhabits her own music with. There isn't a trace of humor, nor even a smile here as the Swedish singer covers A Tribe Called Quest's classic. Lykke is dead serious about kicking it and her refreshing frankness just deepens our love for her.

If William Fitzsimmons is known for anything, it's for consistently delivering songs that are the aural equivalent of having your heart ripped out of your chest and thrown into the ocean off the precipice a towering cliff. The guy knows how to make sad music. So when he took it upon himself to deliver the stripped down, acoustic version of Kanye's existential break-up song "Heartless" the universe itself almost couldn't contain the sadness.

'Ye is also infamous for taking pain and turning it into an emotion so real it seems to seep into the very nooks and crannies of your heart. As Fitzsimmons covers this track though, it's clear he feels the emotion behind it—there's no irony here. When the work of these two musicians was wrapped up into one song the results were terrifyingly sad, and above all, unmistakeably beautiful.

The Canadian electro-pop duo of Purity Ring that sprang from the wilderness of Edmonton has been turning heads since they released their first single "Ungirthed" in early 2011. The beautiful marriage between Corrin Roddick's production skills and Megan James' haunting, feminist lyrics has led to a delicious buzz around the pair that won't stop swelling.

So when they released a cover of Soulja Boy's simultaneously swaggering and beseeching track "Grammy" only a few weeks ago, it felt like the perfect revelation of where else the band can and will go. James hits the same peaks and valleys of insecurity and fear that Ester Dean conveys so vibrantly in the original and Roddick's spiny electronic vertebrae support her winging vocals with ease.

Kanye West's fifth record My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was a very polarizing album, as most things related to Mr. West are. Yet, even Kanye's haters had to admit that the intensely personal emotion behind his confessional-styled track "Runaway"—specifically in the context of the short film he released to accompany the album—is a beautiful admission of failure, acceptance and humanity. When Brooklyn band Oberhofer decided to cover the monumental song, apprehension was heavy. Thankfully, the guys pulled off the song with the right amount of respect, feeling, and skill—it doesn't feel like a bunch of indie rockers appropriating a powerful hip-hop song as much as a group of musicians venerating the work of another. It must be noted as Stereogum pointed out back when it came out, that no one even tries to recreate Pusha T's verse. Thanks guys.