Pat Levy (PL): Collision Course was my introduction to a few things: Linkin Park, mash-ups, and knowing that something that was hugely popular wasn’t necessarily that great. I loved Jay Z already and trusted him to deliver on almost any project. You know, since Kingdom Come hadn’t come out yet. But when this MTV-branded EP came out, middle school Pat was not having it. I felt like Jay’s in-studio quip “You’re wasting your talent, Randy!” should’ve been directed inward instead. The whole concept seemed cheap, slapped together, and it really bugged me that the people who made it seemed to enjoy putting it together as fast as they did. Maybe I was too pessimistic back then, but with its Record Store Day reissue, I can finally say I see the merits in the adventurous EP.

Michael Madden (MM): If you were too pessimistic, Pat, I was probably too easily impressed. I found about the mash-up craze through what I’m pretty sure was the first music magazine I ever bought, the technologically minded Future Music. Only then did I learn what started it all: Danger Mouse’s The Grey Album, a mash-up of The Beatles’ “White Album” and Jay’s The Black Album. Today, I do think this project is less than the sum of its parts. Jay’s “99 Problems”, originally equipped with Rick Rubin’s black-on-black Humvee of a guitar section, is here melded with the relative thrash metal of LP’s “Points of Authority” and “One Step Closer”. Never mind that Mike Shinoda raps the first verse, the “holes in ya zapatos” one.

From the jump, the new incarnation’s whirlwind was destined to take some of the focus off Jay’s lyrics and delivery. I’ll take the Grey Album version instead, which chugged with “Helter Skelter” as the backdrop. Will Hagle (WH): I would go as far as to say that all mash-ups are less than the sum of their parts.

It’s important to remember that Collision Course was a calculated corporate response to one of the year’s most popular releases. Danger Mouse released The Grey Album in February 2004. Collision Course came out nine months later. The former was monumental, and it paved the way for future creators to skirt around copyright infringement.

Jay-Z/ Linkin Park - Collision Course (Amended. Collision Course. It features a CD with versions of existing Linkin Park and Jay-Z tracks mixed together in. More Jay Z And Linkin Park Collision Course Rarlab videos. May 11, 2014 Jay-Z - Numb/Encore (Collision Course 2004) YouTube; Jay-Z & Alicia Keys Perform Empire State of Mind (AMA's 2009) - Duration. Linkin Park & Jay-Z. Find a Jay-Z / Linkin Park - Collision Course first pressing or reissue. Complete your Jay-Z / Linkin Park collection. Shop Vinyl and CDs.

But it would be outrageous to argue that it even approaches the greatness of either “The White Album” or The Black Album. PL: For me, the EP works best when both artists are out of their element.

Shinoda and his angsty vocals find a perfect background with Timbaland’s “Dirt off Your Shoulder” beat, and Jay spitting over Linkin Park’s admittedly iconic “Numb” synth riff almost rivals the original “Encore” beat (please don’t smite me, Yeezus). But if I wanted to listen to Jay rapping over his own beats, I’d listen to the originals. If I wanted to hear Linkin Park playing their own songs, I’d listen to the originals.

WH: Plenty of rappers would’ve fused better with LP’s style, and this collaboration sounds as forced as Kendrick Lamar and Imagine Dragons do in the present day. It mostly works, but does anyone really want it to? Of course, putting Jay on top of unexpected material was en vogue at the time. He commercially released an entire album of a capellas for that exact purpose (which reminds me, perhaps the “Bittersweet Symphony/99 Problems” mash-up is greater than the sum of its parts). At the time of release, I enjoyed Collision Course for what it is: an ambitious fusion of two styles that’s entertaining through one listen but probably not much more.

Even though it was technically a real-life collaboration (meaning that Jay and LP were, however briefly, in the studio together), it felt like just another mash-up. There were plenty of kids with laptops making better mixes with the a capellas. MM: More than anything, we’re talking about a rap release, and Jay and Shinoda couldn’t be more different as rappers. Convert Fs9 Traffic Files To Fsx Scenery on this page.