10 Best Hard Rock & Rap Cross-Over Songs

Linkin Park always had a more eclectic music taste than their nu metal peers. While some bands had just traces of hip hop laced here and there in their record collections, these guys were the real deal who were hardcore fans of both styles of music. When the offer came up for the band to work with other artists, the Collision Course EP they made with Jay-Z was a match made in heaven.

On the surface, there doesn't seem to be anything outside the norm on these tracks. Much of them just consist of Jay's verses from his classic hits being interpolated over some of Linkin Park's instrumentals. Though there are some great gems on the record, the pairing of "Numb/Encore" was something new entirely. Instead of just spending a few hours in the studio copying and pasting the tracks together, the band and Jay made a new track from scratch, which gave each musician more room to expand upon their traditional roles in the band.

You can hear the urgency in the band's performance, almost like they are trying to dial up the intensity to match the rawness of Jay's delivery. The song eventually became a huge hit on its own and showed a legion of nu metal acts how the genuine talents of the genre got their work done.