The Least Expected Guest

Slash’s 2010 solo album was built around a rotating cast of vocalists—a format that was either a generous experiment or a way of avoiding the question of who exactly Slash was without Axl Rose. Most of the guests were predictable rock-adjacent choices. Then there was Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas, showing up on Beautiful Dangerous to do something harder and more feral than anything on her day job. The track worked better than it had any right to. She matched the energy instead of softening it, and the combination had the kind of reckless logic that makes you wonder why it didn’t happen sooner—or why it never happened again.