10 Best Hard Rock & Rap Cross-Over Songs

In the 90's, the entire hard rock genre was flipped on its head by the emergence of nu metal. Instead of collaborating with rappers, these bands cut out the middle man by making the rapper the frontman of the group. These songs definitely have a late 90's sheen to them, but many forget the first forays of this genre actually came at the very start of the decade.

Faith No More's first major hit "Epic" was a real oddity when it was first released. The loud guitars of the opening make you think you're in for something...well, epic...but the verses switch it up drastically, with vocalist Mike Patton employing a flow that has echoes of Grandmaster Flash. The delivery is so fierce that even we begin to wonder "WHAT IS IT??."

The verses are hunkered down by nothing except vocals and bass, but once the guitars come screaming in, suddenly Mike switches it up and begins to sing in a slightly off-kilter vocal timbre. This song was pivotal in the nu-metal genre for giving bands an outlet for both genres to co-exist. In a world where rap-rock only existed in collaborations between artists, Faith No More showed everyone that you could just as easily have one band who could do both.