For The KultuRe: Nine KoRn Hip-Hop Collaborations

From Ice Cube to Lil Jon, here are a few songs from the Nu-Metal band that was all about Hip-Hop

Flashback into the 1990s and there was a lot of cultural-bending events that happened all at once. Everything viewed into a magnifying glass looked to be at its peak: all but not mutually excluding sports, television, children’s toys, and music were lauded with grandiose hyperbole. In the midst of it all was the rapid wave of Nu-Metal — a mix of hardcore metal with Hip-Hop melodies and swagger — and with it a number a great moments (and moments many wished never happened).

Out of the rubble were the pioneers of the sound that are often overlooked and heavily influential to the genres that are played to this day: Korn. The five-piece from Bakersfield, California touched on themes of dysfunctional family relationships, abuse, and self-depreciation. It’s a perfect recipe that aimed at the teen angst of the late 90s that related to it that challenged the authoritative norms of society. And while the lyrical content might be hard to swallow in today’s climate, the music was unique in a period where bands were trying to be Rage Against The Machine copycats.

Not many did as good as a job of incorporating scat jazz, funk fusion, post-grunge, and hip-hop as well as Korn did with their first four albums. From their near-perfect self-titled debut to the magnum opus of Follow The Leader, Korn paid tribute working with a number of rappers from LA to New York and even Atlanta, help molding a blueprint that would become the norm today with collaborations that would’ve been deemed ‘weird’ 20 years ago. So in pseudo-chronological order, here are a few songs that Korn did for the culture.

1. Wicked (feat. Chino Moreno) [Life Is Peachy, 1996]

It would be fitting that one of the very first Hip-Hop collaborations was a cover of Ice Cube’s “Wicked” from 1993’s The Predator album. With an assist from Deftones’ frontman Chino Moreno, Jonathan would scat the hook as Chino provided the verses on a wild mash for the equally wild Life Is Peachy LP. Now it gets a little weird midway through when Chino (of Mexican and Chinese descent) launches out a N-Bomb and then later refers to himself as ‘Caucasian’, but a lot of problematic shit found its way through the cracks in 1996. Still, you can’t help but to mosh and nod your head to its bombastic execution.

2. Children Of The KoRn (feat. Ice Cube) [Follow The Leader, 1998]

Two years later and Ice Cube returns the favor in a major way. Follow The Leader can be considered by some as the definitive Nu-Metal album, perfected with a number of rap collaborators and production that would fit in the current landscape of rap. The former NWA member was a co-headliner for Korn’s Family Values Tour at the time and to further promote the tour and album spawned one of the better rap/rock meetings in quite some time. Playing up on the horror franchise Children of the Corn, Davis and Cube are a one-two punch of warning the parents to shape-up before the kids raise hell.

3. All In The Family (feat. Fred Durst) [Follow The Leader, 1998]

One of the traditional aspects of Hip-Hop is battle rapping and sometimes that can be hit-or-miss. A lot of lyrical magic happens or often listeners have to suffer through the immense homophobia from rappers trying to gain some credibility and round points. The latter sucks, but Davis and Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst poke fun with that with the bromantic “All In The Family”. Here Durst and Davis trade insult after insult of their hometowns, bad breath, and bagpipe usage, culminating in the two’s admiration (and sexual tension) for each other. That’s how battle rap sounds like most of the time.

4. Cameltosis (feat. Tre Hardson from The Pharcyde) [Follow The Leader, 1998]

Seductive and funky, “Cameltosis” is a Korn deep cut that has a man struggling with being used up by a woman like a piece of meat. Pharcyde’s Tre Hardson/SlimKid3 is a narrator of melancholy, with a voice perfect for the spacey guitar effects attributed through the song. It’s as if “Passin’ Me By” was put in a blender with four times the hallucinogens it already possessed. No one likes the friend zone, but it is even worse having your soul sucked out and then you’re asked to leave after a pleasant date and never hearing from her again.

5. End Of Time (feat. Q-Tip) [Amplified, 1999]

For many that were unfamiliar with Korn’s work going into Q-Tip’s brilliant Amplified were met with confusion when his closing track involved the band. It was Jonathan Davis meets Jonathan Davis in a collaboration that could’ve ended collaborations (but later superseded by Marylin Manson and Gucci Mane over a decade later). Produced by Q-Tip and J Dilla (!!!), it was another notch on the belt for the band as they were the hottest act going during the turn of the century.

6. Play Me (feat. Nas) [Take A Look In The Mirror, 2003]

While Jay-Z and Linkin Park at that cute Collision Course LP that folks went crazy over in 2004, Korn and Nas a year earlier grabbed the rock/rap combo by the nuts. At the time Nas and Hov were at the tail-end of their long-storied feud and while things were cordial between the two bands, Linkin Park were seen as the popular rock darlings that blend rapping with metalcore ballads. Korn and Nas just became a match made in Heaven then and it was one that should’ve been explored even further. Featured on both the NFL Street soundtrack and Korn’s underappreciated overlooked Take A Look In The Mirror, “Play Me” served as another example of the band being an excellent background for live rap performances.

If only Nas’s beat choices were as consistent as this.

7. Word Up! (Cameo Cover) [Greatest Hits Vol. 1, 2004]

No one would have thought that the classic Cameo funk single would get an even funkier remake (and weirder video to boot), but Korn went and did. The opening track off of the Greatest Hits, Vol, 1 collection, it was one of the two Korn covers (Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick In The Wall” was also featured) to be a part of the album. The Greatest Hits compilation was signaling the beginning of Korn as what we knew stylistically. A little over a year since its release, guitarist Brian “Head” Welch would leave the band citing personal reasons and turned his life to religion. He will later return to the band in 2013, and things have changed for the band in their musical direction opting for a grittier sound.

8. Coming Undone Wit It (feat. Dem Franchise Boyz) [2006]

Now this was just strange, even for Korn’s standards. Atlanta’s Crunk and Snap era was heavy a decade ago and depending on your perspective, it was the best of times or the worst of times. Dem Franchize Boyz had the hottest rap song at the time with “Lean Wit It, Rock Wit It” and Korn was fresh off releasing their latest album in three years with See You On The Other Side. Two of their first singles, “Twisted Transistor” and “Coming Undone” caught traction with the Hip-Hop community in two different ways. The former’s music video featured Lil Jon, Xzibit, Snoop Dogg, and David Banner portraying as members of the band while the latter was used to mash up with the Franchize single.

On paper it seemed like something that many fans of both can rock to, but it felt like a forced move to keep the band’s name out there. Just two hits that missed together. To make things even more interesting, the song is featured on a Chopped & Screwed version of See You On The Other Side.

9. Fight The Power (feat. Xzibit) [2005]

For the XXX: State of the Union soundtrack, Korn and Xzibit tackle the Public Enemy politically-charged anthem “Fight The Power”, with Jonathan Davis and Xzibit trading the roles of Chuck D. and Flava Flav in between verses. The soundtrack itself had a mix of Hip-Hop and Rock acts, but this was one of the standout songs on the compilation and Xzibit at his best. Also it brings the band’s relationship with Ice Cube full circle accompanying the sounds for a film he starred in.