“Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis. When I was dead broke, man I couldn’t picture this.” – Notorious B.I.G

Biggie may have been dead broke back then, but the long history of rap sampling and referencing video games is anything but a dream. Both art forms have a history of heavy sampling and sharing material (legally and illegally) as a way of growing and evolving. As both became pop culture staples in the ’90s, they started to recognize each other more and more. Producers, DJs, and rappers slowly but surely started to remix and mashup their favorites to make entirely new creations.

To celebrate this mutual admiration, here’s a list of five of the more unique albums that have popped up from this odd-couple pairing.

Ocarina of RhymeAlbum: Ocarina of Rhyme
Artist: Team Teamwork
Personal track pick: No Hook (Meeting the Owl) (Jay-Z)
Available: Soundcloud

Team Teamwork takes The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998) soundtrack with its poppy, flute-heavy beats and mixes it with some classic rap staples in this mashup masterpiece.

This album is almost like someone took everything I loved as a preteen and blended it into a large, musically-derived slurry. If you had told me that Busta Rhymes’s “Don’t Touch Me (Throw da Water on ‘Em)” sounds better when you map his vocals over the Gerudo Valley theme, I would have called you crazy, but it just works. It’s worth it alone to listen to their remixes of Dr. Dre’s “Still D.R.E” and Jay-Z’s “No Hook.”

FF7 Black MateriaAlbum: Black Materia: Final Fantasy VII
Artist: Raheem Jarbo (Mega Ran) / Lost Perception

Personal Track Pick: One Winged Angel Feat. Storyville
Available: Youtube

Raheem Jarbo, also known as Random or Mega Ran, is a pillar in the nerdcore rap scene. His release of Mega Ran (2007), a concept album dedicated to remixing the NES classic Mega Man (1987), put him on the map for his ability to merge his underground rap stylings with classic game backing beats.

Black Materia goes a step further with Jarbo’s narrative building of Barret Wallace and his journey throughout the Final Fantasy VII (1997) storyline. Jarbo masterfully fleshes out Barret’s background with deep and catchy remixes of the original FF7 soundtrack. Regardless of your love of rap or Final Fantasy, Black Materia offers something for everyone and is a testament to the creativity of Raheem Jarbo and the nerdcore culture as a whole.

Chrono JiggaAlbum: Chrono Jigga 
Artist: 2 Mello
Personal Track Pick: Gato’s in Love (Crazy in Love X Gato’s Song)
Available: Free Download

Hip hop has had a long track record of sampling video games, so when 2 Mello did the opposite and mashed the classic Chrono Trigger (1995) soundtrack with Jay-Z’s classic bangers, it oddly felt like it was a natural progression. The mixing and track selection is on point, almost as if Jay-Z himself had used Chrono Trigger’s soundtrack as his original backing beats. This album is like the musical equivalent of pineapples on pizza. Some may be put off by the floaty beats or by Jay-Z’s delivery, but once you try it, you wonder why it wasn’t done sooner.

goldnfly 007Album: Gold N’ Fly
Artist: Alex Kresovich
Personal Track Pick: Gravel Pit (Control) (Wu-Tang Clan)
Available: Youtube

Inspired from Team Teamwork’s Ocarina of Rhyme and Vinyl Fantasy Seven releases, Gold N’ Fly tackles and remixes the N64 multiplayer classic Goldeneye 007. Contrasting the game’s suspenseful and atmospheric tunes, this album mashes rap heavyweights such as Tupac, Nas, and the Wu-Tang Clan into an aggressive, hype-listening session. This album played on all of my memories of sleepover deathmatches and the thrill of finding the Golden Gun before any of my friends. There are no Odd Jobs in this tracklist; just heaps of gaming nostalgia harmonized with higher tempo rap staples.

AAnother M lbum: Another M
Artist: SΔMMUS
Personal Track Pick: Brinstar 
Available: Bandcamp

Imagine devoting an entire LP to the story of bounty hunter Samus Aran and her battle against space pirates. That’s what you get in the crazy concept album Another M. What’s crazy about this LP is that SΔMMUS not only creates some pretty catchy beats out of the NES classic, but also gives an introspective look at Samus that stays true to the themes of the franchise. Sprinkle in a fair share of pop culture and feminist references and you have an album that’s not only a love letter to the original game but also an exploration of contemporary social issues. Narrative-driven concept albums are nothing new for rap, but this album takes it to the next level.

 

Will Jardine
jardine.jw@gmail.com
Writer and occasional Stanley Tucci cosplayer based out of Toronto, Canada.

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