In 2010, Paramore’s Hayley Williams collaborated with rapper B.o.B for the song ‘Airplanes.’ Before the song’s release, she talked about her long-time wish to be on a hip-hop project in a chat with Self Magazine.
With that, the interviewer referred to another version of the track, which included a verse from Eminem, and asked Williams about his dream musical collaboration. To answer, she said:
“I think Eminem is the dream collaboration! I mean, it’s random because Paramore, well, obviously Paramore and Eminem are two completely separate artists, but I don’t know, that just makes it that much cooler to me. Eminem is one of the first rap artists I loved. I loved Dr. Dre and thought Eminem was the coolest.”
Then, the singer explained the rapper’s part in the project:
“And I actually didn’t know Eminem was going to be on the track until probably about a month and a half ago. I got an email saying that they had sent it to him to work on. I heard his verse and just got, I didn’t think I could be more excited about the song, and I can’t wait for people to hear that [version].”
A few months after its release, ‘Airplanes’ rose to the top spot in the UK charts, marking it the Paramore vocalist’s first UK number one single. In addition, the sequel of the song, including a faster beat with Eminem, received a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals.
While Williams and B.o.B performed ‘Airplanes’ live at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, a face-to-face meeting between her and the ‘Rap God’ singer about the track never happened. Still, about the collaboration, she told MTV News:
“Both versions of the track are incredible, that’s all I’ll say. I’m so proud to be a part of this!”
You can listen to ‘Airplanes’ and ‘Airplanes, Part II’ in the videos below.
