Collaboration in Hip Hop-Kanye, Frank and Tyler
One of my favorite aspects of hip hop is the level of collaboration between artists. Rock artists typically don’t collaborate with each other. Why is that? For example, Pearl Jam has never collaborated with Radiohead. Is that because there would be too many chefs in the kitchen? Both Pearl Jam and Radiohead have 5 members in their respective bands. In hip hop, an individual artist usually collaborates with one other artist, therefore making it easier to collaborate with one person than ten. Also, rock musicians typically play instruments and so setting up mics and recording takes a looong time, whereas hip hop artists (generally) work off of programmed computer beats. In other words, it’s much easier to write a song on a machine than it is on an actual instrument. In no way am I discrediting the sophistication of songwriting in hip hop. The bottom line is that these artist work their asses off and write songs, real instruments or not.
My point is that I’m genuinely thrilled by collaborations between artists that admire each other. If I was an artist, it would be the ultimate vote of confidence to get a call from one of my mentors asking me to play on a track. I can only imagine how stoked Frank and Tyler were to receive that call. Maybe even the dudes from OFWGKTA called Kanye? Who knows? They checked for their egos at the for the sake of creativity and the world will be a better place for it.
