Move over John Mayer, there’s another alternative rocker getting the attention from Hip-Hoppers recently: Coldplay’s Chris Martin. Why? Who the hell knows? Don’t get me wrong, I understand blending genres of music; it’s good seeing rappers expanding musical boundires. And even though I’m not really a fan of Coldplay, the “Clocks”/Kurt Angle promo was hot. So why him? He’s married to Gwyneth Paltrow, has a kid named Apple, doesn’t do soul music, and just really doesn’t scream Hip-Hop. But damn, he’s getting named dropped on Jay-Z tracks and doing songs with Kanye (Or even being sampled by Timbaland Brandy’s album Afrodisiac, shit, that’s probably where all this shit started). Are rappers still trying to cross over to other audiences when Hip-Hop is already everywhere? Do they really think putting Martin on an album will bring in more dollars? Today, we’ll look at the tracks he’s already done with rappers and see what all the fuss is about.
Download/Song: Jay-Z – “Beach Chair”
Album: Kingdom Come (2006)
Story: Chris Martin does the hook and production on this track for Hov (with some help from Dr. Dre). The song is important to the album being that is the closer on Kingdom Come. Martin doesn’t seem out of place since Jay-Z ditches the tough talk and reflects on his life after rap. This was also Martin’s first foray into his guest stints for rappers and really big one since it was on Jay’s comeback album.
Results: I can’t hate on this one; this is probably my favorite songs off Kingdom Come.
Download/Song: Swizz Beatz – “Part Of The Plan”
Album: One Man Band Man (2007)
Story: Well, even though it says Martin is features on the CD back cover, I can’t really call it a guest spot I guess; Swizz just sampled Coldplay’s “X&Y” for the hook. Good beat and not a bad sample though, but I bet Swizz probably never met Chris Martin. The song is your basic generic ghetto story with Swizz rapping about riding on unicorns and shit and leaving the hood.
Results: I can’t really judge Martin too harsh for being sampled, you really can’t control that, but this song would have been better if it was by a more able rapper/lyricist.
Download/Song: Kanye – “Homecoming”
Album: Graduation (2007)
Story: This is probably Martin’s best rap cameo to date and most involvement hook wise on any song his been a part…uh rap wise. Kanye has even said on his song “Big Brother” that Jay-Z stole his idea of even working with Coldplay (Well, Kanye was using old rhymes on this track).
Results: Take out the yodeling at the end and it’s a winner.