If you do not care at all for rock music, this might read like jargons to you but don’t check out just yet.
You may not fancy the heavy instrumentals and darkness that characterizes rock music but there’s no way you’re not a Jay-Z fan.
In 2003, alternative band Linkin Park released an album, Meteora. Off that album was a track that resonated across the consciousness of music lovers, regardless of the genre they favoured. That track was titled “Numb”. Its first verse went something like “I’m tired of being what you want me to be, feeling so faithless, lost under the surface, I don’t know what you’re expecting of me, put under the pressure of walking in your shoes”.
The band said of the song at the time, “It came together quickly and effortlessly” and that was exactly how it became one of the most widely-accepted rock songs.
Now the man whose gave life to those heavy lyrics is Chester Bennington. The 41-year-old who hanged himself in a private residence on Thursday.
Still wondering how all of this concerns Jay-Z? Well, Numb was a hit and in November 2003, Jay-Z released his own chartbursting The Black Album. Off that album was a Kanye West-produced track, Encore which turned out a massive hit too.
In 2004, Jay-Z contacted Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park for something that a collaboration that birthed a mashup album, Collision Course. It was remarkably short with only six tracks that totalled about 21 minutes but housed in it also was the blessing that is Numb/Encore.
At a time when mashups were not totally popular, this Collision Course broke through. Jay-Z confirmed this when he said, “That’s what’s exciting about great art or great music, when you combine something in a new way or do something people said couldn’t be done. I think Collision Course is that kind of project. When you hear it, it just sounds right.”
Numb/Encore was performed live at the 2005 Grammys and the beauty of this collaboration lies mostly in Chester Bennington’s voice. It’s been described as one of the most unique in the history of music and for this, we will always remember him.
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