In hip-hop, the guest feature can serve a wide variety of purposes and often many simultaneously.
There are times when the host rapper is playing armchair A&R with the goal of putting on a close friend who typically has few songs to his or her name. Other times, the complete opposite occurs — some unknown comes on the scene with a verse or chorus from a buzzing or high-profile artist. There is also the posse cut, wherein an MC gathers everyone he or she can to contribute to (usually) a remix that gets decent radio play or Internet attention and then fizzles. And in some cases, a rapper is simply trying to get the right voice to add a specific element to a track that calls for more than just solo-dolo bars. read more
