Seven Collaborations that Seem Unlikely but Actually Happened

Collaborations are a great way for an artist to bring something new to their music. Bringing someone else on can change up perspective and perhaps take the artist out of their niche within a certain genre.

Usually, collaborations happen unilaterally within a certain genre. It’s not odd for a pop or R&B singer nowadays to work with a rapper, or for a rock band to invite another band’s singer to chime in on a verse. However, when collaborations begin to cross into vastly different genres, things get interesting.

No one expects to see a rock band or country artist performing with a rapper or softer sounding singer-songwriters working with loud, boisterous metal bands. And when it happens, the outcome goes one of two ways: either it is very good or very bad.

Vinyl Bay 777 presents to you seven of the oddest pairings in music history that have actually happened. Some of these were great successes that changed music forever. Others were so bad they baffled listeners of both artists.

1.       Lou Reed and Metallica: Let’s start with something universally thought of as a grave mistake for both artists involved. Most people would like to forget, but in 2011, ex-Velvet Underground frontman turned solo artist Lou Reed and metal heavyweights Metallica released a collaborative album called ‘Lulu.’ It’s an interesting idea, putting Lou Reed’s vocals over Metallica’s instrumental. But in practice it just didn’t work.

2.       Elton John and Eminem: This collaboration sort of seemed like a PR stunt when it happened. Eminem had said something homophobic in one of his songs and, perhaps trying to make things right, performed his single “Stan” with Elton John at the Grammys. The fact that John agreed to do it at the time was just as shocking.

3.       Jack White and the Insane Clown Posse: In 2011, White decided to record with Insane Clown Posse. If the pairing wasn’t odd enough, the song, called “Leck Mich Im Arsch,” which had additional musical back-up from JEFF the Brotherhood,  took it’s melody from a Mozart piece from the 1700s.

4.       Aerosmith and Run-DMC: This is a collaboration that changed the music world. When Run-DMC decided to cover “Walk This Way” in 1986, they also decided to get the song’s original artist, Aerosmith, to perform it with them. What transpired made history as the first collaboration between a rap group and a rock band. The collaboration gave Aerosmith a boost back into the spotlight, made Run-DMC one of the biggest rap groups around and gave hip hop a place in pop music for decades to come.

5.       KRS-One and R.E.M.: A fan of Boogie Down Productions, Michael Stipe had KRS-One appear on R.E.M.’s single “Radio Song.” KRS-One wasn’t much more than a glorified back-up singer on the track, soloing only for a short rap at the end of the track. It doesn’t seem like this would be that odd a collaboration nowadays, but in 1991, there wasn’t as much rock music taking on a rapper, let alone a band that sounds like R.E.M.

6.       Kanye West and Justin Vernon: West collaborates with a lot of people, but Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon seems like a stretch. But actually, the two have collaborated many times. Vernon appears on “Lost in the World” from ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ and “I Am A God” and “I’m In It” from ‘Yezus.’ Both collaborated with Francis and the Lights on their song “Friends.”

7.       LL Cool J and Brad Paisley: This collaboration stirred up a bit of controversy in 2013, not for who was singing it, but for its content. The song was called “Accidental Racist,” conceptually bringing together a white country singer and a black rapper to discuss their differences and “make nice” for all the years of bad blood.  What was meant to start a discussion about racism instead fell flat, as critics called the song “plastic” and the lyrics “offensive.”

There have been a lot of odd collaborations in music, ones that make you scratch your head at first before ever listening to the track in the first place. Sometimes these tracks work out, like Run-DMC covering “Walk This Way” or Kanye West and Justin Vernon working together. But other times, like Lou Reed with Metallica or LL Cool J with Brad Paisley, the chance taken does not pay off.

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