Within Temptation have revealed that rapper Xzibit didn't know who they were when he was asked to collaborate with them – and he had to Google them for more information.
He finally agreed to appear on their track And We Run from this year’s album Hydra. But before it happened the band, who today played the main stage at Download, had to battle with their backroom staff.
Guitarist Ruud Jolie tells TeamRock Radio the collaboration was fellow axeman Robert Weterholt’s idea. He says: “Robert is a big rap fan, and when the song was written he thought it would be good to put rap over it.
“We always thought Xzibit is a great artist and a very likeable guy through his TV show. When we asked him he had to Google our name! But we knew he’d done crossovers with his own music, and he was into a more heavy style. We tried – and I think it turned out really great.”
Vocalist Sharon den Adel says: “When we said we wanted to work with Xzibit, the record company were like ,‘Okay, do you want us to contact him?’ But the management were almost dropping off their chairs, like, ‘You’re crazy, you don’t want to work with a rapper – you’ll end your career!’”
The reaction just spurred them on, she adds: “We thought it would be even more interesting to see what people would say.”
And while some fans didn’t like the concept, many of them have come round since Hydra was released. “A lot of people had doubts,” Jolie says. “Some people wrote off the whole album. We’ve talked to numerous people who, at first, didn’t like it much. But it’s evolved into their favourite track on the album.”
