Linkin Park

Collision Course (with Jay-Z)

Now THIS is definitely the "Best of Both Worlds"...

Review Score:

(10/10)
For anyone that has been living deep in the recesses of musical knowledge over the last year, the term "mash-up" is where a DJ takes the lyrics of one artist's songs and combines them somewhat flawlessly with the beat of another artist's song from another different genre of music.
For example, take the lyrics to Destiny's Child's hit "Bootylicious" and lay them on top of the beat of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and what do you get? "Smells Like Booty". You might be laughing at this title but believe it or not it actually exists, as anyone who uses Kazaa or any other music downloading site can tell you.

One artist who has found himself being mashed-up frequently at times is Jay-Z, who was the focal point of two mash-up albums that brought this underground trend to the mainstream forefront, DJ Danger Mouse's The Gray Album (using Jay's Black Album and the Beatles' classic White Album) and The Double Black Album (again, The Black Album but this time paired with Metallica's own "Black Album" from 1991)

So when MTV decided that a legal mash-up project would be a good idea for a special album project, they enlisted Linkin Park to try and pull it off. So who better to team them up with than the man who has been mashed-up more than potatoes at a Thanksgiving dinner, Jay-Z?

Collision Course is the end result of what had originally been planned as a one-shot song deal that suddenly turned into a 6-song EP album that showcases what happens when the self-proclaimed "best rapper alive" is partnered with one of the hottest alternative rock groups out today.

Most of the tracks are definitely hot in showing that Hova can definitely match his smooth flow and unique wordplay to the beats that LP lay down, especially on the closing track, Points of Authority/99 Problems/One Step Closer. What really makes the track a standout is how LP's Mike Shinoda takes over the part of the police officer that Jay recorded for 99 Problems and how Jay hardly needs to shift style or speed as the beat changes.

The thing that really makes this a great package is that it includes a DVD that shows how the project came to be in the studio, how the artists prepared and rehearsed to get ready for a special concert to preview the new material before the album release, and the concert itself.

Hopefully MTV will do another mash-up project sometime in the near future. As for this, unlike the 2 disasterous "Best of Both Worlds" projects that Jay-Z performed with R. Kelly, this definitely fits the "best of both worlds" definition to a T...

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