Music

Remembering Metallica and Ja Rule's super weird collaboration

by Richard Howard

In the ’90s and early 2000s, the world’s love affair with rap-rock collaborations was at an all-time high. As a follow up to the rockification of earlier hip-hop tracks like RUN-D.M.C.’S “Walk This Way” by Aerosmith and Public Enemy’s “Bring The Noise” by Anthrax, we got original music such as 1993’s Judgement Night soundtrack and the Jay Z/Linkin Park Collision Course album. We also got “We Did It Again” by Metallica and Ja Rule.

No, someone didn’t make that at home for kicks. That’s a real track that appeared on the soundtrack of the 2003 film Biker Boyz (and yes, the film was also terrible). In case you wanted to sing along, here’s a choice passage highlighting Ja’s love for barking ‘AY’ sounds into a microphone:

“I love fast cars, fast broads
’cause I’m a rockstar bayBAY
born in the USA
I’ma hit the highWAY
on my HarLAY
do about thirTAY
blown L’s takin’ it EAS-AY”

Still, even with the proof there in black and white on the album’s track listing, one still finds it hard to believe that these artists and producers (Metallica, Ja Rule, Swizz Beatz and Bob Rock) got together, completed the song and said to themselves “this sounds awesome.”

Well, thanks to the magic of the interwebs, we can not only dispel any doubts once and for all, but provide some top shelf entertainment by providing this behind the scenes clip. Highlights include Swizz Beatz jamming out like there’s no tomorrow, Lars Ulrich describing it as “a rock movement” and Kirk Hammett looking very unsure about the whole thing.