10 Best Hard Rock & Rap Cross-Over Songs

Sonic Youth are one of the bands from the punk scene that got all of the hipster street cred. Coming at the tail end of the original punk movement, the band's use of feedback and noise helped them create not only post-punk, but also the alternative scene of the 90's. What no one could have predicted though was them featuring a rapper on one of their tracks.

The band's 1990 record Goo was already an indie success story, but the most interesting part of the record came on "Kool Thing." Kim Gordon originally composed the song as a way to one-up LL Cool J after an interview that she did with the rapper for Spin Magazine. As we enter the musical breakdown of the song, Gordon breaks the fourth wall if you will and starts confronting LL in the lyrics, directly referencing some of his songs like "Going Back To Cali."

The song plods along fine, but what really makes the track work is the ad libs that are being put on by Chuck D of Public Enemy. More than just sonic dressing, Chuck D's encouragement gives the entire song a feeling of being played in a sweaty club with the MC acting as the pep-talker as Gordon goes into musical battle. There had been crossovers in rock and rap before, but nothing this feral or seductive.