There’s something vaguely dirty about this record. And here it is: MTV’s "Mashups" series – a sort of post-millennial urban-savvy "Unplugged" – put nu-metal po-faces Linkin Park and rapper Jay Z together for a show centred around a performance of Jay-Z’s "99 Problems". The resulting concert and MTV broadcast now becomes a (very short) album and DVD digipack, a download website, plenty of merch, a series of specials… and overall a neat, neat piece of brand extension. Linkin Park’s own verdict on hearing the finished work? “That’s how professional we are.”
One-nil to the men in the suits. But – and it’s the biggest but in the world – it’s also fabulous.
The whole, beautiful point is captured in the album’s standout track, the storming hybrid of Linkin Park’s "Points Of Authority" with Jay Z’s "99 Problems" and back into LP’s "One Step Closer". Because essentially, these very different songs from very different genres are, deep down, the same f*ck-you, the same get-out-of-my-face. The same blues. And to hear Jay-Z delivering slow, lazy put-downs over buzzsaw guitars, or LP’s vocalist Chester Bennington interrupting Jay Z’s laconic disdain with the screamed “Shut up while I’m talking to you!” is to hear the two sides of being young, male and disaffected in a dialogue. It’s thrilling, schizoid, and utterly compelling.
Sometimes it’s clever – the hoodie-top angst of Linkin Park’s signature "Paper Cut" wrapping itself like scaffolding around Jay-Z’s "Big Pimpin'" is fantastic, the sound of whatever it is that uptight white kids and angry black kids share, and sounding for all the world like the future – but it’s always taught, whip-mart, and full of great instrumentation. There’s even humour, with Bennington ‘doing’ rap wrath on one intro with a nasal “I ordered a f*cking Frappuccino!”
The digipack’s documentary footage, charting the concert and featuring (it’s got to be said) somewhat stilted interplay between the protagonists – Linkin Park giggle and fawn, Jay Z looks ice cool – is all well and good, but with the likes of Dangermouse upping the mashup album ante, we could have done with a full-length foray into where the music wanted to take them, instead of talking-head filler.
