Music

5 Bizarre Musical Collaborations

by Aaron Zorgel

This A$AP Rocky/Lana Del Rey collaboration that’s been tearing up the internet over the past couple days got me thinking — nothing is off limits when it comes to contemporary musical collaborations. All it takes is for one artist to reach out to another via Twitter, and the labels are pleased as punch because these weird pairings make major headlines.

Pop music has experienced so much genre-fusion that there’s literally no collaboration too weird to be true. We no longer look to mash-up DJs to provide us with sonic collisions — they just happen organically. “Slayer has a new track coming out featuring Clay Aikin” and “Dolly Parton and deadmau5 to work on collaborative dub-reggae album” both read like legitimate believable headlines to me.

Let’s scour the vault (ie. YouTube) for some recent collaborations that, against all odds, happened for some reason.

Tim McGraw & Nelly “Over and Over”

You took Country Grammar too far, Nelly. This freak of nature peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100, proving that America likes its rap music with a side of twang.

Metallica & Lou Reed “The View” (Lulu)

On first listen, it seems like Metallica were supposed to pick up Lou Reed at the airport, and instead went home with William Shatner. It sounds like that on second listen, too.

will.i.am, Jennifer Lopez, and Mick Jagger “T.H.E. (The Hardest Ever)”

Only the poet will.i.am could rhyme “morning” with “morning,” and then rhyme it with “morning” again. “I wake up in the morning / Hard like morning-wood / in the morning.”
The only thing worse than will.i.am on this song is Mick Jagger. His verses sound like the clumsy rantings of an irate old man trying to yell-explain why the world is doomed to a disinterested teenager. And that’s kind of what he’s doing, actually.

Insane Clown Posse & Jack White “Leck Mich Im Arsch”

I’m actually incredibly happy this actually happened. Jack White proves that culture will eat itself, while desperately trying to keep a straight face.

Weezer & Lil Wayne “Can’t Stop Partying”

Weezy and Weezer, together at last. Rivers insists that he has gotta have the cars and the jewels, while defiantly coo-ing “screw rehab!” in one of the weirdest songs in the Weezer catalogue. I bet when they play that one on the Weezer cruise, shit goes off, though.