The music world is no stranger to the pain and loss that comes with the untimely death of a rising (or established) star. Most specifically, the rap game.

Lil Peep, Jimmy Wopo, XXXTentacion and plenty more are just the most recent rappers to meet sudden death.

Nothing can be done to bring them back but that’s no reason to not appreciate what the future could easily have presented.

Hopefully in an alternate reality somewhere, these four collaborations were able to happen and blow speakers out every night for the rest of eternity

4. Speaker Knockerz x NAV

Auto-tune is something that is more and more common in the new wave of rap. It meshes well with the common “drowsy” flow that goes along with the frequent usage of heavy 808’s and distorted sounds in instrumentals today.

Before NAV was the star he is now, Speaker Knockerz was developing a huge following for his music. His clear and concise flow mixed with constant auto-tune was actually a refreshing sound in the rap game before and after his unfortunate, sudden death in 2014.

Flash forward four years and now its NAV who is dominating his lane with his crisp usage of auto-tune and personal catalog of beats filled with dark energy.

The combo of NAV and Speaker Knockerz is something that most certainly would’ve happened in a perfect world but this world is far from perfect.

3. Jimmy Wopo x Ugly God

This one seems out of no where but really makes sense when the two rappers are put side-by-side.

Jimmy Wopo was shot dead on June 18 of this year, not long after XXXTentacion was shot in his car in Florida. Before his death, Wopo was able to gain popularity off of his single “Elm Street” which blew up on social media for good reason.

Wopo had a flow that thrived over the beats that have a quiet presence in a commanding way. His songs “Walkn Bomb” and “First Day Out” are the best examples of how he could have absolutely destroyed a beat with Ugly God by his side.

Both songs are Wopo spitting over simple loops with engaging sound effects and tough samples.

Everyone knows the sound Ugly God carries with him is only made better with his hilarious choice of lyrics. Wopo sounded similar only with more intimidating lyrics that fit the mood of his songs.

The contrast each of them would be beautiful to listen to. The prospect of Ugly God producing and rapping on any extension of music with Jimmy Wopo sounds too good to true and unfortunately, it is.

Those two ripping apart beats for even nine minutes on three songs would be the recipe to the livest summer party scene the world has ever witnessed.

2. Meek Mill x Young Pappy

One aspect of Meek Mill’s music has been consistent his whole career: no one can match or exceed his raw energy on the mic via a feature. Meek has made a career of having a loud flow, to the point where he is almost shouting to the mic.

Meek still has a catalog of solid features he gave and received from top tier artists over the years but the perfect fit for a collab album or E.P. has evaded him.

Looking back at it, Young Pappy was probably the man for the job.

Before his death in 2015, Young Pappy was near the top of the Chicago underground scene. He ripped apart instrumentals from popular drill music (even rapped on an iPhone ringtone) where he utilized his ruthless, angry flow.

Young Pappy was able to inject his flow over a wide range of different types of instrumentals without ever losing his grip on the track. The result is the same high volume attack of spoken words on a microphone that Meek Mill mastered. If these two were ever able to pump out a collab project it would have easily lasted a year in heavy rotation.

1. XXXTentacion x Lil Peep

In mid June of this year, XXXTentacion’s life came to a sudden stop and the whole music world was immediately changed. Despite all of the controversy that surrounded X’s name during his rise to fame, people in the music industry still were quick to recognize the talent that he was and just how much the world lost just from one artist dying.

In November of 2017, not even a year prior, Lil Peep was also confirmed dead at just 21 years old. Lil Peep’s death also was met with everything in the world of music coming to a standstill for some time.

The shared tragedy of early sudden death put an end to both of their music careers despite the incredible run they each had on the way. Thankfully, dying at a young age is far from the only similarity with these two.

XXXTentacion will end up being seen as the father of Trap-Metal, which is like if the new wave and metal genres had a baby.X was also able to get on a track and spit old-school as well as new school. He could just as easily get on a track and sing screamo style or R&B style and it always sounded painless.

He started off a SoundCloud rapper and now could have his own “greatest hits” collection just from a couple of years in the game. It’s safe to say his presence alone would carry any album to success.

Pin that with Lil Peep, whose voice carried an entire state of being with it, a unique voice that can’t really be categorized or explained. Peep’s music told the world he was a rockstar drowning in substance.

The goth boy flow mixed with the right amount of auto-tune led to some of the smoothest choruses and overall songs that ever touched the music streaming world. Most specifically are “Save that Shit” and “crybaby” where listeners feel like they’re dropped into the world of pain that Lil Peep couldn’t escape.

Its not even a far reach to say that if XXXTentacion and Lil Peep did make a 7-8 song collab album today, it could have been remembered as the best rap collab album since Watch the Throne was given to the world in 2011 by a couple of guys who are also pretty popular from their music.