collided to produce this hardened but mellow mish mash, which samples Linkin Park’s mellow but dark and angry hit “Numb,” taken from their previous album “Meteora”, and Jay-Zs hard hitting rap hit “Encore,” taken from The Black album. Both artists keep their individual style, of traditional rap, and nu metal rock/rap, and never try to out-do one another, whilst cleverly matching their respective styles, which is re-iterated by the track itself: “The rest of you know where I’m lyrically at Can none o’ y’all mirror me back” Opening with Linkin Park’s familiar riff from “Numb,” mashed up DJ style, the track then breaks down and Jay-Z and Chester Bennington take the stage, rhythmically rapping together, introducing their track. The Linkin Park front man then hands the mic over to the hardcore rapper, who hardens up the mash up, whilst still maintaining a feeling of fun, over Linkin Parks dark riffs. Jay-Z then takes over the backing track, allowing the Linkin Park gang to mellow down the track with their mellow riffs, and haunting chorus, before the meteoric, angry chorus kicks in. It’s left to Jay-Z to bring the collision to an end, before the same DJ-like riff bring the track back down to earth safely. Two different genres and two respected artists, whether the genre, or band is your thing, both genres blend very well, and the angry, dark lyrics of Linkin Park match the hard music of Jay-Z, whilst Jay-Zs rap matches the dark riffs of Linkin Park.
Katherine Tomlinson
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