Numb ⧸ Encore [Live] - Linkin Park ⧸ JAY-Z

2004

Numb ⧸ Encore [Live] - Linkin Park ⧸ JAY-Z (2004) Director: Kimo Proudfoot Era: MTV Mash-Up Era (2004) - Cross-genre collision at the peak of nu-metal and mainstream hip-hop convergence, anchored by the MTV Ultimate Mash-Ups franchise and the Collision Course EP An essential document of early 2000s genre convergence and MTV's mash-up era, this video captures a culturally unrepeatable moment in which two of rock and hip-hop's biggest franchises briefly shared a stage. Its dual-format structure, colour live performance and black-and-white BTS, makes it a textbook study in early-digital concert documentary aesthetics. The 4K remaster adds technical archival value while preserving the original grain and energy of the source footage. Context: Released in November 2004 as the sole single from the Collision Course EP, 'Numb/Encore' emerged from MTV's Ultimate Mash-Ups initiative, a format that institutionalized genre-blending as a commercial and cultural strategy. The track fused Linkin Park's 'Numb' from Meteora (2003) and Jay-Z's 'Encore' from The Black Album (2003), two of the defining albums of their respective genres that year. The collaboration signaled a mainstream legitimization of rock-rap fusion beyond the Limp Bizkit era, reaching #20 on the Billboard Hot 100 and winning the Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration in 2006. By 2024 it had surpassed 1 billion Spotify streams, cementing its status as a cross-genre touchstone of the mid-2000s. Director notes: The music video was shot in October 2004 at The Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood, California, where the live performances for the Collision Course MTV special had taken place in July 2004. Per Wikipedia and Linkin Park fan wiki, the video combines colour performance footage from The Roxy with black-and-white behind-the-scenes material. The performance footage and most scenes are also available on the Collision Course DVD, though the full music video edit is not entirely replicated there. IMVDb credits both Kimo Proudfoot and Joe DeMaio as directors; Wikipedia, IMDB, and the Linkin Park fan wiki credit Kimo Proudfoot as the primary director. The video premiered on November 22, 2004. It was nominated for the MTV VMA Viewer's Choice award in 2005.