Hip Hop, Rap and RnB "duet's"

[Ginger Tea]

This probably goes further back than "Stan" by Eminem, but I don't know the chronological order of these songs, or if there are any more (I might edit this post if I can think of any more) but they all have the same thing in common.
The woman sinsg just a basic hook and sometimes needent be credited as a co-performer and just a famous backing singer.

OK I do remember one pre Stan song
Long hard road out of hell, before they took Sneakerpimps name off the track, from the Spawn soundtrack, which was meant to be a collaboration album, Manson went on record that he wanted a female singer for that song and as it happened he was asked to put a song for the album and lo they gave him a female singer fronted band to work with. So that one got retroactivly turned into an uncredited backing singer.

Stan, this one kinda gets off the hook as it was a sample of Dido's track thankyou and not a propper duet, but it has all the hallmarks.

Nelly & Kelly "Dilema" Kelly Rowland's main post Destiny's Child song (that I can remember) all she sings is "No mater what I do, even when I'm with my boo, all I think about is you-oo-oo." or words to that extent and not much else. Atleast the girl singing on "It's getting hot in here" was just a backing singer and not listed as a duet with a dozzen words to her song sheet.

Jay-Z Alicia Keys "Empire State of Mind" again like with Stan this is Jay-z using an exsisting Keys' song in his own work and she is just providing some chorus.

Back to Eminem with Rhianna this time and "Love the way it hurts" I love her part the beats around it and wondered if again it was a Rhiana solo sang over as I would listen to that if it had the same musical accompanyment, she does eventually sing something else aside from "Just gonna stand there ..." so atleast she gets to sing more than normal.

The only one I can think off off hand that isn't a chorus cut from another song, or lyrics worthy of a backing singer not a named artist (OK the genres listed are not my main staple of music, but they are the main culprits) is Ludacris and Niki Minaj "My chick bad" although she has little to say atleast she says different things and Ludacris sounds the more repetative. I'm just dissapointed that her solo stuff sounds so bland in comparason, I want this pink haired psycho to do more songs, not the "no more I love you's" sampled "your love" which had that going on for longer than I could care.

This one is a backing singer and not a duet so it doesn't count, but I can't let it slide, Puffy Daddy's "Coming Home" starts off with a wonderfull voice, lures me in each time then that idiot opens his gob and I wonder if he used biggie as a human meat shield as I think music would be better off if he died and B.I.G didn't.

In short, (too late) if all you want is a backing singer, HIRE a backing singer, don't get someone who wants a good chunk of royalties from the song just so you can have a more named artist help your career.
I lost track of the ammount of times Jay-Z was guesting in video's around 03, I think he could be on for an hour uninterupted with the ammount of guest spots he did and most of the times his brief cameo was way better than the song it was spliced into.

[Gravekeeper]

I admittedly loath most songs like that as they're usually desecrating a much better song in the process.

[AdminAssistant]

Collaborations like that go back at least to the mid-80's ("Walk this Way" with Aerosmith and Run-DMC) and probably further. It may be a few people who just want to work together, or it may be a ploy to appeal to both fanbases. Fiance listens to a lot of techno/house/trance type music, and those guys collaborate like crazy. One of my favorites is by DJ Tiesto with BT on lyrics, "Break My Fall." Yeah, Tiesto could have got just any guy (or girl) singer to do it, but it sounds better with BT, plus it appeals to both sets of fans.

[muses_nightmare]

This one is a backing singer and not a duet so it doesn't count, but I can't let it slide, Puffy Daddy's "Coming Home" starts off with a wonderfull voice, lures me in each time then that idiot opens his gob and I wonder if he used biggie as a human meat shield as I think music would be better off if he died and B.I.G didn't.

Uhg, I soo hate this song, while loving the good part of it at the same time. It'll come on and I'm like, ooh this sounds like a good song, because I've forgotten about the rap part.

It's irritating.

[Ginger Tea]

Walk this way was way more of a collaboratvie duet, "dilema" was nothing more than Kelly rowland singing the same chorus and nothing else, it seemed like he was using her name to sell his record and nothing else, I at the time had not heard of him and although I knew of Destinies Child I didn't know the members names for quite some time.
Although thinking about it, most singles released in the UK by DC were more chorus chorus chorus verse instead of the other way around, so in away I think limited lyric's are a norm for Kelly Rowland.

But I feel grabbing someone big and perhaps bigger than you, to sing nothing more than the chorus to help sell your records is a bit low, if the song is good enough, it can work on its own merits with a backing singer doing the same bits, don't waste a name tallent with crap, colaborate properly or hire someone less known and don't call it a duet.

Now I'm regretting not putting this in "Things I hate", as that part I do detest.

I don't know the guy or the words, I just remember Hayley Williams (of Paramore) part in "airplaines" or whatever its called, untill I heard it was her I just assumed it was a backing singer who sounded familiar, really it's not a paramore/him colaboration its just her doing the female vocals that anyone could have been drafted for, "Under Pressure" they ain't.

Genre crossovers are good, I like most of Collision Course by Linkin Park and Jay-Z the spawn soundtrack is nothing but metal and numetal/other collaborations save for Long hard road, true some might have been more remixes eg Metalica Whom the bell tolls, but most were colabs.

[BlaqueKatt]

or even better record a duet, then decide to not put the duet on your album because you don't want to share royalties with the other singer, sing the entirety of the song yourself(which sounds horribly stupid as it was originally a male/female duet), and don't allow airplay of the original because you want the entire spotlight.

why yes I do have issues with Eileen*

*she has lied heavily to further her career, and it's easily verifiable stuff at that.

[blas87]

Remember Flo Rider's big hit, spin me right round or whatever the hell it was called? And the girl singing the tag line?

That was Ke$ha. Uncredited, of course.

[AdminAssistant]

Also, check the record labels. There's a chance that some of these artists might be on the same label or under the same studio or umbrella organization. Technically, the recordings are the property of the label/studio, so if both artists are on that label, there's no profit loss.