Hip Hop and Indie Rock

Tame impala V Bruno Mars/BOB - DJ Tommy2bob mix by blessedlovestudio

UPDATE : This as good a place as any to post our latest rock/hip hop mash up of Tame impala V Bruno Mars/BOB 

Just to proove that here at BLS we are not all about Hip Hop/Urban musical styles we present a new mash up of South Central LA's Hip Hop Slackers The Pharcyde on Oxford Indie 'Shoegazers' Ride track 'Leave Them all behind'.

Ride versus The Pharcyde : Leave them passing me by by blessedlovestudio

It has also made us think it would be a good idea to highlight some of our favourite Hip Hop and Rock hook ups over the years. Probably the most influential rock/hip hop crossovers would be RunDMC and Areosmiths 1986 track 'Walk This Way' (The groundbreaking video is below)

The story goes that Run DMC's late, great DJ; Jam Master Jay used to use the opening

two measure drum beat intro by Areosmith drummer  Joey Kramer in thier early sets, looping it into an endless beat. Years later when approached by thier Record Company to release the track with the 70's glam rockers Areosmith, Run DMC were suprised and revealed they had never listend to the track beyond the drum beat intro!

  

Rick Rubin & Jay Z

The sucsess of the track opened the floodgates and produced a rash of rock and hip hop collaborations. Although not a collaboration, The Beastie Boys work with Def Jam producer Rick Rubin, produced one of the greatest collision of rap and hip hop in thier track 'Fight for your Right to Party'. (Video of the original track and the star studded 2011 update below)

Rubin went on to work with artists as varied as and has worked with artists as varied as Slayer, Slipknot, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Mars Volta, Danzig, Dixie Chicks, Metallica, AC/DC, Weezer, System of a Down, The Cult, Neil Diamond, Mick Jagger, Linkin Park, Rage Against the Machine

On the heavy side of things we have to mention hook ups like Public Enemy and Anthrax seen performing below at the 2004 Hip Hop awards

 Also loving his thrash metal is Ice T and his rock outfit 'Body Count' made infamous for thier LAPD baiting track 'Cop Killer', which suprisingly didnt go down with the United States 'moral majority'. Ice T said when asked about the bands name stated : 

 "We named the group Body Count because every Sunday night in L.A., I'd watch the news, and the newscasters would tally up the youths killed in gang homicides that week and then just segue to sports. 'Is that all I am,' I thought, 'a body count?'"

You can see how this trend lead to one of the most sucsessfull Rock/Rap collaboration, Jay Z and 'emo' rockers Linkin Park (video below)










Most of this mid eighties craze for Rock/Rap hybrids concentrated on the heavy side of the US 'thrash metal' scene like Anthrax and Slayer. However where things get more interesting is on the mash up scene that cast a wider net of both the rock and Rap/RnB scene. Probably the greatest mash up was Freelance Hellraisrers The Strokes Vs Christina Aguilera mash up - 'A Stroke Of Genie-us' (video below)

We also have to mention Belgium based art rockers SoulWax '2 Many DJ's' bootie/mash up project that mixed Salt n Peppa with the Stooges and Nirvana with Beyonce

(check back for updates, this blog will be updated, please add ur sugestions for the best rock/rap crossovers in the comments section)