Collision Course: 19 Years Later
How two mega artists came together to make one of the most exciting albums in history
Mashups are a tricky thing to pull off. Finding the correct grooves, popularity, tempos, & emotions, between two songs isn’t an easy task. Djays are more than familiar with the concept—looping certain parts of one song to make it the bed of another. Sometimes, they’ll play the entire mashup out, but most times, they’re used as transitions from one song to another. An indescribable feeling happens when the brain connects each song as they collide. This feeling is usually amplified when the pair of songs are seemingly miles apart from each other; a mindnumbing mixture of confusion & familiarity floods the brain.
In the early aughts, MTV attempted to capitalize on this feeling via their Ultimate Mashups series. They wanted to throw two big artists from different sides of the spectrum into a room together & make magic—and that’s precisely what they got. In just under the course of five days, Linkin Park & Jay Z would go on to make one of the most exciting collaborative ventures of their time.
In the summer of 2004, Linkin Park & Jay Z worked effortlessly on a six-song EP using the best of their respective works to create a seamless melting pot. The network reached out to Jay, asking who he’d like to work with, to which he named Linkin Park. The initial idea MTV had was to have them mingle for a bit while someone made the mashups, almost as an afterthought. Unfortunately for MTV, Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda was a huge music nerd. Having made mashups for fun in his youth, Mike was determined to be that someone who would make each mashup for the project.
Mike is also a student of hip-hop, so he knew he had to put his best foot forward to impress one of the greatest rappers of all time. He immediately created some rough drafts to send to Jay Z’s people for feedback. After getting a text from Jay saying “Oh shit!” Shinoda knew he was on the right track. The main ingredient that made this stew so potent is its authenticity. Instead of just mashing the songs together, Mike & Jay realized it would sound better if they re-recorded everything. This would include the main vocals, backups & adlibs from Mike, Chester & Jay. Linkin Park would go on to re-record instrumentations to help accompany Jay-Z’s glossy hip-hop tracks such as Dirt Off Your Shoulder, Big Pimpin & Jigga What. What sounds like an arduous task was completed in under five days.
Not to take anything away from Linkin Park & everything they've done up until this point but the anchor of this group was clearly Jay Z. The prolific rapper had just announced his “retirement” via an incredible album & final farewell show that sold out Madison Square Garden. So the fact that he would collaborate with an Alternative Rock/Nu-metal group was bemusing. Watching the DVD, you can see Jay exude nonchalance as he casually maneuvers around the fresh-faced rockers eager to meet him at his level.
As things are getting started, Shinoda asks Jay about the roughs he sent, confirming that he liked what he heard; this was the spark that indicated that Jay wasn’t just there on a whim. A seemingly unenthused Jay would nod & sit in a chair, hands folded, head down. The more music Mike shows him, the more entranced Jay becomes with the idea. Eventually, he suggested to Mike how Numb/Encore should be edited to make its impact hit harder—to which Mike immediately opened up the music program & began editing. “Hurry up, Mike, shit!” a jovial Jay jokingly demands.
This project is so special due to the perfect use of each contributing artist’s work; wonderfully combining Linkin Park’s aggressively emotive bellows with Jay’s flagrantly confident luxury raps. Mixing 13 songs, 7 from Linkin Park’s side & 6 from Jay’s respectively. Since Mike was the executive producer & curator of the project, he pulled a few tricks to ensure the listener has a convivial experience.
The first thing you hear on the album is Chester asking where his cappuccino is. It then opens with the Dirt Off Your Shoulder instrumental as Mike begins to rap his Lying from You verse; an immediate juxtaposition for fans on either side. The song crescendos & drops into Jay rapping the hook as the Lying from You guitar thrashes in. An immediate harmony of contradictory sounds ensues. I truly love that Linkin Park was able to perform the more aggressive sides of their songs on this album. The casual listener who’s heard songs such as In the End or Numb could be staggered by Chester’s guttural caterwauling on songs like Faint or Lying from You.
For all its collaborative efforts from both parties, this is essentially a Linkin Park album featuring Jay Z. However, this album would be nothing without Jay’s appearance. Jay Z hand-picked Linkin Park for this project & was as collaborative as possible; never letting his ego get in the way of creating something new or preventing Linkin Park from fully representing themselves on a track. Before recording his verse for Jigga What, Mike asks Jay, “How much time do you have tonight?” Jay humbly replies, “Naw, I’m cool. I’m cool with vocals. I do vocals pretty fast.” There’s a glint in Jay’s eyes when talking to Chester about his love for collaborating with different artists & creating something out of the love for alchemy.
The accompanying DVD follows the recordings, rehearsals & live show. It’s littered with gems; the late, great Chester Bennington being goofy, Jay’s dry humor, & Mike making 4th wall breaks toward the camera. Without a doubt, the best part of the DVD is the live performance at the Roxy where they performed the entire album for an unsuspecting audience. To me, it’s one of the rarest shows in the past 20 years. As Mike & Chester skate across the stage & command the crowd, you can catch Jay with the impressed face; shrinking his stage presence to play the role of a guest in Linkin’s house. By the third song, Jay is completely relaxed. Talking to the crowd, doing adlibs for Mike, rapping his verses with more gratification.
The final song on the album is arguably the best. It has Mike rapping the first 99 Problems verse as if he’s Jay’s lawyer explaining Jay’s case. Jay rapping over the Points of Authority instrumental sounds like something out of Twisted Metal. In the second verse, Mike plays the role of the cop harassing Jay, & then they finally descend into the One Step Closer instrumental, & the crowd explodes into screams. On the outro, Chester turns into a human volcano, spewing, “Shut up when I’m talking to you!” I admitadly got misty-eyed watching the footage—it’s like peaking into an alternate timeline.
The album was a success. So much so that it’s MTV’s only entry in their Ultimate Mashups series because how can you top this? The album’s single, Numb/Encore won a Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, and went double platinum in 2017. It’s albums like these that truly represent a point in time & capture the allure of the famous phrase, ‘right place, right time’. It holds up because there was love & care put into each song without any ulterior motive from the label heads; just a couple of artists who appreciated each others' work enough to try something new. Fans on both sides may refer to this project as a waste of time but personally, it sits as a magnificent accomplishment of collaboration.