Pop Shots
When Pop & Rap Collaborate
By: Adam Bernard
Last updated April 28th , 2010

Welcome to your weekly dose of pop world musings. Covering all things pop culture, this week, with the B.o.B - Bruno Mars collaboration, "Nothin' On You," reaching number one on the Billboard chart, Pop Shots is taking a look at the always interesting world of pop singers and rappers collaborating. It's a tough line to toe for both the singer and the rapper. While both are obviously looking to expand their audience, as B.o.B. certainly has from his "Haterz Everywhere" days, both sides risk damaging their reputations in the process. Has the rapper gone soft? Is the pop artist trying too hard to be something they're not? Are BOTH sides selling out?

In the annals of pop music history there are hundreds, maybe even thousands, of such collaborations, many of them due to the fact that Jennifer Lopez would have had a hard time getting on the charts any other way. Some of these collaborations are memorable, while some of them qualify as something else entirely. The following are prime examples of the best, worst, and most confusing pop singer - rapper collaborations of all-time.

Mariah Carey w/ ODB - Fantasy (Remix)

This is one no one saw coming. The quintessential pop star, the woman who sang "Vision of Love," "Emotions," and "Dreamlover," pairing up with the most gutter rapper in the Wu-Tang Clan, the man who penned lyrics like "ooh baby I like it raw." Somehow, it not only worked, it became a classic. There isn't a soul alive who was listening to music when this song came out that doesn't know the second half of the lyric "me and Mariiiiiah." As much as I hate to admit it, Puffy did a great job with this one. The P. Diddy - Mariah Carey teaming didn't work out quite as well the next time around, though...

Mariah Carey w/ The Lox & Ma$e - Honey (Remix)

For as great as the "Fantasy" remix was, the "Honey" remix was such a f***ing mess it's hard to believe that they were put together by the same man (actually, they probably weren't. Just because Diddy's name was on both doesn't mean he actually produced either of them). The Lox clearly phoned it in for this, spitting uninspired pop raps that were nothing like what they normally do. Ma$e, being a pop rapper himself, actually sounded well placed on the song, but the beat was sloppy, and the re-imaging of Mariah STILL hasn't caught on.

Hilary Duff w/ Slim Thug - With Love (Remix)

How on earth this collaboration happened is beyond me, but the beat is sick, Slim Thug doesn't switch up his style for pop radio, and Lizzie McGuire came out of it with a song that sounded completely appropriate coming out of the speakers of a Jeep. Duff's oftentimes had some really tight production, so I guess it was really only a matter of time before a rapper decided to jump on a track with her. Hearing her with Slim Thug certainly wasn't something people expected, but it worked.

LFO w/ M.O.P. - Life Is Good

Nothing can make a person go WTF quite like hearing the boys who openly admitted they "like girls that wear Abercrombie & Fitch" with the rap duo who's hits include "How About Some Hardcore" and "Ante Up (Robin Hoodz Theory)." One group seems perfectly at home shopping for Gap tees while the other seems perfectly at home robbing a Gap store. I have no idea how one group got the other group's phone number, and I certainly don't know who was the master convincer that made them decide to work together, but the result is the most confusing collaboration in the history of music. Amazingly, neither group's reputation was altered in the least by this. Everyone who heard it basically said, "let's just pretend this didn't happen." 

And with that, my time is up for the week, but I'll be back next week with more shots on all things pop.

[Tags] POP, Rap

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