15 Unexpected Musical Collaborations

By Riley Ubben  |  June 23, 2011 | 8:49am
Music Lists

8. The Hives and Cyndi Lauper – “A Christmas Duel”
Girls just wanna have fun, and so do Swedish punk rockers, so why not? Apparently both parties also share mixed feelings about the holidays.

7. The Black Keys and Mos Def – “Ain’t Nothing Like You”
The Black Keys’ BlakRoc side project had the guys teaming up with all sorts of rappers with the help of Roc-A-Fella co-founder Damon Dash. This is their cut with Mos Def.

6. The Jonas Brothers and Common – “Don’t Charge Me for the Crime” (2009)
The only crime the Jonas Brothers should be charged for is robbing Common of some serious rapper cred.

5. Thom Yorke and Flea – “The Clock”
When the head Radiohead announced his Atoms for Peace side project would feature the Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist, Yorke’s fans were surprised—and he was inevitably Photoshopped next to some revealing pictures of Flea.

4. Eminem and Elton John – “Stan”
Slim Shady was in a lot of trouble for his seemingly homophobic lyrics back in 2001, so it came as a shock that Elton John would agree to sing with the rapper at the Grammys. The openly-gay singer is apparently a fan of Eminem’s, however, and defended him against protesters.

3. David Bowie and Nine Inch Nails – “I’m Afraid of Americans”
During their co-headlining tour in 1995, Bowie and Reznor were known to cover each other songs. That didn’t make the gloomy king of industrial rock’s remix of Bowie’s “I’m Afraid of Americans” any less weird, however.

2. Bob Dylan and Kurtis Blow – “Street Rock”
That’s right—the legendary Mr. Zimmerman did a rap song. Though he only provides a short introduction, the guest spot proves that Dylan has, indeed, done it all.

1. Kanye West and Justin Vernon – “Lost In the World”
When the news broke that Ye would be enlisting the man behind Bon Iver for his highly anticipate My Dark Beautiful Twisted Fantasy, the only thing the two had in common was an interest in auto-tune. Vernon ended up being a crucial part of the album, however, and a credit to West’s insight as a producer.

Pages: 1 2

 
Join the discussion...