Yes, you read that correctly. Linkin Park and Rakim have collaborated and released a new track, Guilty All The Same. As you know, this isn’t the first time the rock band has crossed over. We must NEVER forget the Collision Course album with Hov for it was the most beautiful clash of genres. Back to this new release though, it was premiered via Shazam and holds a lot of heavy guitar/drum-lines/shredding, as we would expect. Rakim comes in and blesses a verse in the only way he knows how and the result was pretty cool.

“The reason we went with this single first is that we think it’s a good look into the DNA of the record that we’re putting out this summer. [Rakim] is like one of my idols. If you get into the nitty-gritty of his rhyme pattern and the topic in this song, it’s bananas what he is doing. He’s on the some Steve Vai s–t vocally.”

“A few months ago I was making some demos and writing this stuff and it sounded like something that you could play on the radio. I listen to a lot of indie music … And I was listening to the demos and thought, I don’t want to make any of that music. What is it that’s not out there right now that I’m all about, that I’m fired up about that is a void? It ended up being this new material.

“It’s louder; it’s more visceral than probably anything we’ve done recently. And we’re all really proud of it.”

*After scouring the web to find a working link, I soon found out to hear the song: Tag any LINKIN PARK song on Shazam and get a first listen of “Guilty All The Same”. Enjoy!

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Matt Whitlock – @mattwhitlockPM