He's sold over 17 million albums, built the multi-million dollar empire Roc-A-Fella Records, and is now collaborating with one of the biggest rock acts around. Jay-Z, with Linkin Park, has just created history with an unprecedented "mash-up" album that unites separate Jay-Z and Linkin Park songs into single tracks. It's called "Collision Course," and rightfully so.
Essentially, all the music was not simply taken exactly from their previous albums, which is clearly evident in the way that Jay-Z's rapping works so well with Linkin Park's metal beat.
One thing that must be said for Linkin Park, and is backed up by their previous albums, is that they pride themselves on their work. They could've easily just taken the old beats and left them the way they were due to the fact that they have a pretty tight rep already, but they really put a lot of work into this album in the four days it took to make it.
The best asset this CD has is that it doesn't sound like some tacky album that was just produced to generate profit; it is convincing in the way that Jay-Z and Linkin Park's collaboration does not seem forced or coerced. It actually sounds like a real band.
There's definitely something to be said for the way this album immediately gratifies the listener, not only for its uniqueness and ingenuity, but because it takes a band that mixes hard rock with classic hip-hop beats and adds one of the greatest hip-hop entrepreneurs of all-time. For this fact alone, the album is worth the price tag, let alone the fact that it comes with a DVD that includes all of the songs performed live, as well as behind-the-scenes footage.
The album only has six tracks and after several listens all are still fresh, except perhaps, "Izzo/The End," which has Linkin Park rapper Mike Shinoda's lyrics on Jay-Z's song, and while its clear that the lyrics were not just spilled from a Linkin Park song onto one of Jay-Z's, some songs just don't work together.
Photo: Courtesy of Matthew Messina, from the RMBERS' Instagram page
