评分高居iTunes和流媒体音乐网站Spotify前列的饶舌歌曲中有一个词反复出现，它不是什么时尚俚语，也非改头换面的咒骂之词；这个词就是“助阵”。Billboard的20大蓝调即饶舌单曲排行榜中，有10首歌至少有一位助阵歌手，有2首歌甚至邀请了不止一位助阵歌手，很多都是邀请的像德雷克、克里斯•布朗、蕾哈娜、扬•杰子和泰贾等赫赫有名的歌手。“现在全球最火的歌手是助阵歌手。每张唱片都少不了这家伙，”饶舌歌手Dr. Dre的律师彼得•帕特诺开玩笑说。

    饶舌音乐历来依赖合作、采样和重新混音。但如今，助阵歌手已从饶舌艺术的特征之一，变成了其商业成功的核心内容。“饶舌歌手越来越像企业家。他们意识到，邀请其他歌手助阵新歌是实现自我突破的一种重要手段，”华纳唱片（Warner Music）的联席首席执行官托德•莫斯克维茨表示。他曾任Def Jam Records的总经理。“不光是为电台制作的单曲，所有歌曲都是如此。歌手们共同录制一张唱片时，他们就互相赢得了对方的粉丝。”莫斯克维茨

    案例一：坎耶•韦斯特2010年11月发布的专辑《我的奇特幻想》（My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy），助阵歌手多达22位，包括尼基•米娜、史威兹•毕兹以及嘻哈乐队Wu-Tang Clan的成员RZA和拉克沃恩。Bon Iver乐队、Pusha T和瑞克•罗斯甚至参与了多首歌曲。有一首歌曲《所有的光芒》（All of the Lights），演唱歌手包括约翰•传奇、The-Dream、托尼•威廉姆斯、赖恩•莱斯利、查理•威尔森、艾利•杰克逊、艾丽西亚•凯斯、菲姬、卡迪小子、蕾哈娜和埃尔顿•约翰。专辑正式发布前几周，韦斯特每周都在网上发布一首新的单曲，称为G.O.O.D. Friday （以其唱片公司命名）系列。每首歌都有助阵歌手，如贾斯汀•比伯和鲁普•费阿斯科等。

    随着这股趋势而变化的是经济因素。歌手们不再因为仅仅出现在一张专辑中就获得报酬。莫斯克维茨称：“这就像是投桃报李，艺术家A作为助阵歌手在艺术家B的专辑中唱了一首歌后，艺术家B也会同样出现在艺术家A的专辑中。”好处是曝光率，可能赢得新粉丝，以及演唱会和商业合同等。如果获得报酬，酬劳往往是固定收费，大牌明星是每首歌10万美元。另外，预付未来版税也很常见。

    很多协议——特别是不涉及财务往来的协议——都是一时兴起。制作人兼饶舌歌手赖恩•莱斯利表示，纽约大型的录音棚所剩无几，歌手们总是能不期而遇。他说：“有一次我正在为神奇小子录音，凯利•希尔森正巧在旁边一间屋录音，因此就有了一首单曲。”G.O.O.D. Friday系列歌曲Christian Dior Denim Flow的来历也是一样。莱斯利解释称：“那是一个晚上，我进录音棚，看到好多熟悉的面孔。老天，约翰•传奇，卡迪小子，劳埃德•本克斯，赖恩都在……我们得搞出点什么名堂。我走过去把按键和节奏设好，班克斯和卡迪小子即兴发挥。都是非常开放的合作氛围。”他说，一切自然而然，“我不用担心结果如何”。

    One word appears repeatedly among the top-rated rap songs on iTunes and Spotify. It is not a piece of in-vogue argot or even a masked expletive; it's the word "featuring." Of the top 20 singles on Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop chart, 10 have at least one guest vocalist. Two feature more than one guest, many of them with familiar names like Drake, Chris Brown, Rihanna, Young Jeezy and Tyga. "The biggest artist in the world right now is Featuring. That guy is on every record," jokes Peter Paterno, Dr. Dre's attorney.

    Hip-hop and rap have long relied on collaboration, sampling and remixing. But the guest appearance has gone from simply a part of the artistic fabric of rap to a core feature of its commercial success. "Rap artists have become more entrepreneurial as a necessity, and they've realized a big part of them breaking is to get others on their songs," says Warner Music (TWX) co-CEO Todd Moscowitz, previously general manager at Def Jam Records. "It's not just about singles for radio, it's about ubiquity. They gain fans from each artist they do a record with."

    Exhibit A: Kanye West's album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, which was released in November 2010. It contained an astounding 22 guest vocalists including Nicki Minaj, Swizz Beatz, as well as Wu-Tang Clan members RZA and Raekwon. Bon Iver, Pusha T, and Rick Ross each appear on multiple tracks. One song, "All of the Lights," has vocals from John Legend, The-Dream, Tony Williams, Ryan Leslie, Charlie Wilson, Elly Jackson, Alicia Keys, Fergie, Kid Cudi, Rihanna and Elton John. And in the weeks leading up to the album's official release, West posted a new single every week online, calling them G.O.O.D. Friday tracks after his label. Each featured guest vocalists such as Justin Bieber and Lupe Fiasco.

    The economics have shifted along with the trend. Artists no longer necessarily get paid simply for appearing on a major release. "It's almost always just a trade now, where one artist will do a verse on someone's album for a guest verse on their own record," says Moscowitz. The prize is exposure, plus gains reaped down the line from new fans and opportunities like concerts or merchandising deals. When they are paid, compensation is often a flat fee, with bigger stars pulling as much as $100,000 per track. Advances against future royalties or copyright credits are also common.

    Many agreements -- especially ones that have no financial component -- are made on a whim. Ryan Leslie, a producer and R&B singer, says there are so few big studios left in New York that artists will often find themselves in close proximity. "There's a studio video of me making a record for Fabolous, and Keri Hilson just happened to be in an adjacent room recording, so it turned into a single," he says. The same thing happened with the G.O.O.D. Friday song "Christian Dior Denim Flow." Leslie explains, "It just happened that the night I came by to see 'Ye, everybody was in the studio. He looked around and said, 'Man, we've got John Legend, Kid Cudi, Lloyd Banks, Ryan... We gotta do something.' I went over to the keys, the beat got laid, Banks and Cudi did their verses. It was a very open and collaborative vibe." When that happens, he adds, "I don't worry about the back end."

    不过，结果可能不一定顺利。50 Cent所率乐队G-Unit的成员托尼•吉拉克霍（素被称为Tony G.）指出，结果总是让人操心。“尼基•米娜这样的歌手或许会和另一位歌手在录音棚里呆上一会，说‘嗨，我愿意加入这支歌曲，’因此他们进行了录音。”他说，“但接下来这首歌可能会被管理层否决。他们会说，‘听着，我们打算先发布这首或这两首，我们要把所有的推广资金都用在这上面，我们不想让一首有助阵歌手的歌曲掺和进来，分散听众的注意力。’”因此。很多优秀的合作歌曲最终都这样被束之高阁了。

    有些歌手可能会将这些歌曲在互联网上私自发布。“如果一首歌有四位一流歌星演唱，却被唱片公司封杀，”Tony G.说。“歌手往往会说‘我可不想管这些，太烦了。我们就把它当做一首推广歌曲发布吧。这事儿就算完了。’”这倒不是说原先的合作完全是浪费。饶舌界资深人士巴斯达•韵表示：“不幸的是互联网的出现让一首歌的注意力持续时间不像过去那么长了。必须不断地让街上能听到你的音乐。”Tony G.对此表示赞同：“你不再只是一名歌手，而是一个品牌。必须把一切都拉进来，包括社交媒体、整个团队、你和其他歌手合作的歌曲。”

    十年前，唱片公司要花上重金，才能请到一位著名歌手助阵一首单曲，特别是如果他们认为这首单曲可能成为一首热门的电台歌曲。如今，电台已不再是目标，明星助阵歌手亦然。邀请很多新冒出来的年轻歌手助阵一首歌，即便他们没那么出名，是让一首歌迅速流行起来的关键。成名歌手，如Jay-Z和坎耶•韦斯特，受益于与年轻饶舌歌手在一起，这能让他们保持业内地位，拓展品牌。年轻歌手则能够获得更多的曝光率，J. Cole、卡迪小子、Wale和Big Sean就是通过在一位知名前辈的歌曲中客串而打响了知名度。

    这一趋势取代的是传统的饶舌乐队团体。可以越来越多地看到，歌手忠诚于唱片公司，但演唱以个人为主。虽有例外，但对大多数来说，Run DMC、De La Soul或NWA等饶舌乐队辉煌的日子已然逝去。这并非全然是件好事。帕特诺认为，随着饶舌乐队团体的逐渐消失，饶舌艺术丧失了一些重要的东西：“人们喜欢Wu-Tang或NWA，没有热门歌曲，他们的唱片也能大卖。他们是一种生活方式，对人们具有重要意义。但现在，我想大部分歌手如果不再推出热门歌曲，很快就会被人们遗忘。”

    歌手担心过度曝光吗？现年25岁、来自俄亥俄州的斯达黎去年和瑞克•罗斯的Maybach Music 唱片公司签约，他说他很谨慎。“我不会因为目前某些人很火，就草率地和他们一起录歌。我希望人们知道我的品牌，我的音乐以及我想代表的价值，然后再助阵其他人的新歌。”巴斯达不这么认为。对他而言，一切都很简单：“你可以录一万首助阵歌曲。如果这些歌都很好，那么你也不错。”

    当然，只有时间能告诉我们，由八位歌手共同演绎一首单曲是否是一个永恒的趋势。“出道10年以上仍然能够活跃在我们称之为嘻哈和饶舌音乐圈内的歌手没几个，”巴斯达•韵表示。“因此，得等到发行五张专辑后，我们再来看看当初这些热门歌手在哪里。五年后我们可以再来看看，就会知道谁能真正留下来。我肯定还会在这儿努力奋斗。”说话的这位可是饶舌音乐圈内最热衷友情助阵的歌手之一。

    译者：老榆木

    That can lead to problems, however. Tony Girakhoo, known as Tony G. and a scout for 50 Cent's label G-Unit, notes that the people on that "back end" usually do worry. "An artist like Nicki Minaj might be hanging out with another artist in the studio and say 'Hey, I'll jump on this song,' so they cut a record," he says. "But then management won't clear it. They'll say, 'Listen, we're putting out this or these two singles first, and we have all these marketing dollars behind it, we don't want to confuse the public with a feature right now.'" Thus there are a number of great collaborations that are never heard.

    That typically leads artists to leak songs onto the Internet. "If it's four marquee names and the song gets nixed by the label," Tony G. says, "often the artist will say 'I don't want to deal with this, it's not worth the headache, let's just leak it as a promo and move on.'" That doesn't necessarily mean the collaboration was a waste. "Unfortunately, says rap veteran Busta Rhymes, "the attention span is not as long as it used to be, thanks to the Internet. So you have to keep feeding the streets with your music." Tony G. concurs, "You're not just an artist anymore, you're a brand. You have to tie everything in: your social media, your whole crew, your features with other artists."

    A decade ago, labels would make serious investments to get a verse from one big name on their client's single, especially when they thought it could become a hot radio track. But radio is no longer the goal, and often neither is a star guest. Having a number of fresh, young artists on a track, even if they are not well-known, can be the key to making a song go viral. Established artists like Jay-Z and Kanye West benefit from working with young rappers by staying relevant and expanding their brands. Younger artists, in turn, get more exposure. J. Cole, Kid Cudi, Wale and Big Sean made names for themselves by making cameos on tracks with an established mentor.

    One element the trend has displaced is the old-school rap group. Increasingly, artists have allegiance to their label but continue to function chiefly as individuals. There are exceptions, but for the most part, the days of collective groups like Run DMC, De La Soul, or NWA appear to be fading. That isn't an entirely welcome phenomenon. Paterno believes that with the move away from groups, rap has lost something important: "People like Wu-Tang or NWA, they would sell without hits. They were a lifestyle. They mattered to people. I don't think most artists today matter to anybody as soon as they stop having hits."

    Do artists worry about overexposure? Stalley, a 25-year-old from Ohio who signed with Rick Ross's Maybach Music label last year, says he is cautious. "I don't jump on records with people just because they're hot right now. I want people to know my brand, and my music, and what I stand for, before I get to hoppin' on everybody's track." Busta doesn't see the same risk. For him, it's simple: "You can put out ten thousand features. If they're all good, then you're good."

    Of course, only time can tell whether singles heavy with eight different vocalists are a permanent trend. "There ain't too many more 10-year veterans still poppin' in this game we call hip-hop and rap music," adds Busta Rhymes. "So, you know, after five albums, let's see where some of these hot dudes are. In five years we can revisit this, and we'll know who really stuck around. I for one will definitely be here still busting ass." And this from one of the most avid collaborators in the business.