14. Collision Course (with Linkin Park) (2004): What the fuck was even happening here? Linkin Park co-leader Mike Shinoda somehow convinces a post-retirement Jay to come in and re-record the vocals of some of his classics so that Shinoda can forcibly mash them up with his own band's big hits on an out-of-nowhere EP that nobody was demanding? Seriously, what? God knows, there were probably vast piles of money involved, but still! I'll ride for Linkin Park as underappreciated crafters of middle-school catharsis, and there's even something vaguely nifty about the interlocking beats of "Jigga What" and "Faint." But there's just no reason this thing needs to exist, and Shinoda sounds like an even clumsier rapper when you put him next to the master. Also, there's some serious cognitive dissonance here: Jay's music, broadly speaking, is about confidence, while Linkin Park's, broadly speaking, is about self-doubt. Together, they just sound artless and awkward.














































