5 of the best and 5 of the worst pop-rap collaborations of all time

DJ Khaled was a regular feature on the Billboard Hot 100 between 2006 and 2016 thanks to his collaborations with rappers like Drake, Rick Ross, and T-Pain – but he was never able to top the charts.

That was until April 2017, however, when he had a stroke of genius by recruiting pop superstar Justin Bieber to sing the hook on "I'm The One."

Bouncy, upbeat, and insatiably catchy, the song was the anthem of summer 2017.

With Justin Timberlake's debut solo song "Like I Love You," producers The Neptunes transformed the singer from a cheesy pop prince into a sexy R&B superstar in just over four minutes.

Aiding Timberlake's coming-of-age was Pusha T and Malice, collectively known as Clipse, whose raspy Virginia raps acted as the perfect accompaniment to JT's sultry vocals.

Adam Levine was the odd-feature-out on Ye's 2005 sophomore album "Late Registration," which featured guest appearances from rappers like The Game, Paul Wall, and Common.

The Maroon 5 frontman didn't sound out of place, however.

In fact, his elegant chorus on "Heard 'Em Say" was one of the project's highlights, with the singer's tender tenor perfectly complimenting Ye's introspective raps.

As part of the evolution from pop princess to R&B icon, Mariah Carey often had rappers feature on her tracks in the mid-to-late '90s.

The pick of the bunch was her collaboration with Ol' Dirty Bastard on the remix of her 1995 track "Fantasy."

Not only did the song shoot to No. 1 all over the world and sell over 6 million copies, it paved the way for rap features to become a mainstay in popular music.

Pop-rap collaborations can often sound messy and muddled because the genres have such contrasting elements.

Fifth Harmony and Ty Dolla $ign bypassed that problem beautifully in 2015, however, with "Work From Home"

The song's minimalist production and tropical-sounding synths provided plenty of breathing room for Fifth Harmony to provide the juicy R&B hook and Ty to flex his hip-hop muscle.

Katy Perry boasts a number of great collaborations with rappers in her discography, including "California Girls" with Snoop Dogg and "Dark Horse" with Juicy J.

Her 2017 link-up with Nicki Minaj for "Swish Swish" – an in-cohesive grab bag of pop, EDM, house, and rap – is not one of them.

Bone Thugs N Harmony and Phil Collins came together in 2003 for the song "Home" in what is certainly one of the strangest rap-pop link-ups ever.

The song, which sampled Collins' 1985 hit "Take Me Home," sounds like a fever dream, with Bone Thugs providing their typically poetic chopper-style rap on top of Collins' Tarzan-esque drums and next to his echoey vocals.

What's even weirder is that after the song was released, the rap group decided to make Collins an honorary member, naming him "Chrome Bone."

There isn't much good to be said about Ed Sheeran's 2018 collaboration with Eminem and 50 Cent for "Remember The Name."

The hook is boring. Sheeran's rap skills are elementary at best and sound jarring next to Eminem's angry verse about sticking nails in his eyeballs.

50 Cent's verse, though the best of a (very) bad bunch, sounds like it's been dropped on the end purely for nostalgia's sake.

Both Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar switched up their trademark sounds as they came together for the remix of Swift's "Bad Blood" in 2015.

Swift had abandoned her country roots to go full pop for the release of "1989," while Lamar ditched his typically aggressive style of rap for a more radio-friendly flow.

Put them together, and the result was a bland-sounding song that didn't do justice to either artist's talents.

When Wale dropped his debut album "Attention Deficit" in 2009, fans of the up-and-coming rapper were expecting great things.

The album's lead single, "Chillin'" with Lady Gaga, however, was anything but.

"'Chillin'' was a mess," wrote Spin's Brandon Soderberg in 2012. "Gaga mimicked M.I.A. on it for some reason, and its cloying pop appeal seemed to violate much of what Wale had built over the previous few years."

He added: "It wasn't a Wale song and it wasn't a Gaga song with Wale wedged in there somewhere, either."