What would happen if Linkin Park, who are at the top of their genre, teamed up with rap giant Jay-Z to make an album? The answer would be Collision Course. And now that the album is finally here, the other question should be: Is it worth it? Well I’m going to try to answer that.
The album, which consists of six tracks, begins with “Dirt Off Your Shoulder/Lying From You,”; which is a nice track, the two songs work great with each other, and it begins with MC Mike Shinoda and vocalist Chester Bennington singing and then Jay-Z rapping, and at the end an exchange of rapping and screaming between Mike and Chester.
The next song, “Big Pimpin’/Papercut,”; is the worst track on the album; LP’s “Papercut“; and “Jay’s Big Pimpin’“; just don’t blend in with each other. Also, Chester doesn’t sing in this song, and it seems that Brad Delson (the guitarist) and Phoenix (the bassist) are absent too, making this song awfully mixed, it’s like cooking eggs with apples, seriously.
The third track is “Jigga What/Faint“; which is surprisingly a decent song; it begins slowly with Jay’s “Jigga What“; and then bursts to life with LP’s “Faint“;. It’s really cool hearing Jay-Z rapping over “Faint“;, which is one of Linkin Park’s fastest songs.
Tracks four and five, which are “Numb/Encore“; and “Izzo/In The End“; are just lame, it’s sad because “Numb“; and “In The End“; were essential listening for rock fans, and the same goes to “Encore“; for rap fans. These two songs also suffer from the same problems that made “Big Pimpin’/Papercut“; such a bad song, I mean, come on, they’ve already messed one song, did they have to mess another two.
The sixth and last track is “Points of Authority/99 Problems/One Step Closer,”; which not only is it the best song on the whole CD, but it also seems that the three songs which make it were meant to be together. Its fun hearing Shinoda and Jay-Z rapping the lyrics of “99 Problems“; over the music of “Points of Authority“; and “One Step Closer“; before Chester begins screaming Shut up and Everything you say to me. It’s only sad that the other tracks couldn’t have been like this.
In the end, I’d like to say that I wouldn’t recommend this disc to anyone but the hardcore fans who are into BOTH ARTISTS, but even so, there will be some disappointments (I am a huge Linkin Park fan and after hearing this CD I was left feeling shallow). Also, I’d like to point out that all of the songs on this album are not better than the originals, and they have nothing new to give us at all.