The day when hip hop met rock

In the 1980s, when you were into a particular kind of music, you were also signing up to its fashions, slang, and ideas. While the two predominant genres were heavy metal and hip hop, two sides that, perhaps stupidly, were not supposed to mix... And yet, here’s a look back on how this supposedly impossible marriage became a match made in heaven!

 

RICK RUBIN: THE GREAT WIZARD

If we had to name a priest to officiate at this wedding, it would of course be the producer Rick Rubin. As much a fan of punk rock as he was hip hop, the New-Yorker dreamed up the crazy idea of having the hard rock group Aerosmith collaborate with the rappers of Run DMC. The result was the first ever official union of rock and hop, and became a planetary hit, relaunching the career of Steven Tyler’s band. Spurred on by this successful experiment, Rubin then took a young group by the name of the Beastie Boys under his wing, producing their album, Licensed to Ill, in 1986. It was an album that would go on to become one of the best-selling hip hop albums in the 1980s... made by three white guys from the punk rock scene. With the schoolboy humour of “(You gotta) Fight for your Right (to party)”, the Beastie Boys were never off the screen of the nascent MTV, and their long career had begun in earnest. The second official union would come in 1991, when the thrash metal band, Anthrax, collaborated with hip hop’s Public Enemy. “Bring The Noise” would push what was possible between the genres even further, making use of an ultra-fast beat. Its success led the two bands – with very different audiences – to go on a smash hit tour, and laid the foundations for the fusion style’s success.
 

CULT SOUNDTRACK

Stephen Hopkins’ film, Judgment Night, was released in 1993, but its most surprising feature wasn’t on the screen: the producers behind the soundtrack had the genius idea of bringing the best hip hop artists of the era together with their rock/metal counterparts. The result was Slayer performing with Ice T, Helmet and House of Pain, Pearl Jam and Cypress Hill and Teenage Fanclub with De La Soul. It is worth noting that the producers would repeat the experiment four years later with electro and metal groups for the soundtrack of Spawn, creating another legendary soundtrack.

 

A LOSER IN THE CHARTS

In 1994, Kurt Cobain left us and grunge began to falter. In parallel, Faith No More and Rage Against The Machine were on the prowl. The latter had just concocted a simple yet effective formula: riffs like Led Zeppelin, a cocky frontman like Public Enemy, and a rhythmic groove. It was an equation that would set the tone for the decade. But the indie world was not to be outdone: Chuck D from Public Enemy had already featured on “Goo” by Sonic Youth back in 1990, and Beck hit the charts with his own blend of folk and clapped out hip hop with “Loser”, in spring 1994.

GLITTERING TRACKSUITS ON STAGE AT WOODSTOCK

When Korn burst onto the scene in the mid-90s, they were a harbinger of acceleration. Influenced in particular by Faith No More’s fusion of hip hop and metal, the band led by Jonathan Davis quickly earned a reputation and gave metal music a new lease of life by incorporating hip hop grooves that would become the norm in metal music. In their wake, plenty of bands crafted their own take on this new aesthetic: Coal Chamber, Deftones, and, first and foremost, Limp Bizkit would be the new rock stars of the turn of the late 20th century, all capped off with a Woodstock ‘99 festival with Korn, Kid Rock and Limp Bizkit headlining in a spring break atmosphere, with baseball caps and baggy jeans as far as the eye could see.
 

SPRING BREAK HANGOVER

The Millennium Bug wouldn’t happen, but the new millennium would spell the end of hip hop-rock fusion.With the arrival of bands like The Strokes, the rock scene post-9/11 was in search of authenticity: wave goodbye to the Ecko threads and capacious sneakers, and say hello to skinny jeans and Converse. Despite a few notable tracks from this marriage of genres, like “Rock Superstar” by Cypress Hill in 2000, the future was looking to the past, and artists like Kid Rock were less in demand. The United States, traumatised by the September 11 attacks, regressed to an earlier time, finding solace in old-style rock music. The scene shifted towards glamour and forged a romantic image miles removed from the Spring Break atmosphere of Limp Bizkit. Hip hop, meanwhile, was entering its golden age where creativity (and revenues) were sky-high, and had no need to flirt with rock and metal bands.

 

FACE TATTOOS AND NIRVANA T-SHIRTS

While the fusion of hip hop and rock is no longer the flavour of the day, the two genres continue to exert a more subtle influence on each other. The new generation of rappers has soaked up a plethora of styles, and the rappers emerging from Soundcloud, like XXXtentation, Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Peep, $uicideboy$ and Post Malone cite Marilyn Manson and Kurt Cobain as major influences. Today, rappers are the new rock stars, and while rock music is still on its quest for authenticity, the heavyweights of hip hop have found it and remain the predominant style at the top of the charts.