Follow Anywhere the Dope Go on Twitter
Linkin Park’s early material for years had stuck with the youth of 2000s. Whether that be for Chester Bennington’s raw delivery & singing abilities, the expertly talented Joe Hanh on the turntables, the heavy guitar & drum work brought on by the rest of the band, they brought together a sound like no other. While the Nu-Metal tag was placed on to them, which as their career went on saw them straying further & further from, they found a perfect balance between that alternative metal sound with a dash with hip hop. Their first two albums embraced this sound the most, with Hybrid Theory & Meteora, and in part of embracing the hip hop side brought a remix album. Recorded during the touring of their first album, Reanimation was born as a remix to Hybrid Theory.
This doesn’t feel like a by-the-numbers remix album, as many albums in this vein will lazily throw together a collection of remixes. In fact, that’s exactly what they had done on their remix album for Living Things, titled Reanimation. Instead, the tracks here blend together to make for a cohesive listening experience, even changing the original track ordering. Every track here brings a new feel, with either heavier hip hop influence or electronic influence.
Linkin Park – X-Ecutioner Style (ft. Black Thought)
They easily could’ve reached for more mainstream acts at the time, but this remix album sees them reaching to the underground scene. Featuring the likes of Black Thought, Chali 2na, Planet Asia, Alchemist & Pharoahe Monch just to name a few, the album brought new life to both scenes of Nu-Metal & underground hip hop. While the match ups sound so unlikely, how heavily they’re remixed makes the tracks work.
Easily one of the best hip hop remixes here is in the form of “H! Vltg3,” a remix of “High Voltage” off the original album. Using production provided by Evidence, the track feels completely rebuilt from the ground up barely resembling the original. Mike Shinoda has never been the strongest on the mic, but he definitely flows well on this production. As if it couldn’t get better, Pharoahe Monch delivers a multisyllabic futurist verse that Canibus could only dream of crafting. Led off with some scratches from the Grand Puba verse on the Brand Nubian song “Drop The Bomb,” the track ends on the perfect note.
Linkin Park – H! Vltg3 (ft. DJ Babu & Pharoahe Monch)
While the overall sound of this still heavily lends its sound to the likes of alternative metal, the band would continue to create a much more pure hip hop release with the help of Jay-Z & MTV on Collision Course. That collaboration would’ve never happened without being embraced by the hip hop scene in the first place. As we’ve seen so many Nu-Metal acts come & go without as much of a whimper, this album has become the fourth best selling remix album of all time.
An album is easily dismissible as a cash grab became one of the most genre bending albums to ever grace both hip hop & alternative metal. This is an album that brought a whole new generation of fans to both scenes, opening the genre doors for both sides of the spectrum. It wouldn’t have done so either without being a strong release in the first place. What they captured was a pure lightening-in-the-bottle moment in time, something they would never quite reach ever again.