5 Hip-Hop Tracks That Sample Video Game Music (Besides "Hotline Bling + "Cha Cha")
-By Zack Sigel
Drake’s “Hotline Bling” is reminding people a little too much of a certain theme song from Super Mario World. That’s because it was modeled after D.R.A.M.’s hit “Cha Cha,” which samples the “Star World” theme. So after you’ve gotten sick of Drake trying to dance in the new video for “Hotline Bling”, check out these other hip-hop tracks that sampled classic video game music.
When sampling video game music, the best tracks are often the most subtle. Overworld themes, especially in obscure locations like forests and rivers, dominate this list, as do tracks with a more personal edge that were meant to recall characters within the game. (You won’t find “One Winged Angel” here.) And they work best when married to other instruments, layered under snares and bass by a skilled composer.
Drake - "6 God"
Sampled David Wise - Donkey Kong Country 2 - Haunted Hall (50 seconds in)
The sequel to Donkey Kong Country for the SNES was easily the best addition to the series. You take Diddy and Dixie Kong through swamps and pirate ships in order to rescue the family patriarch, with a host of new moves at your disposal and a shady world of cudgel-swinging crocodile men standing in the way.
Childish Gambino - Eat Your Vegetables
Donkey Kong Country received rave reviews for its score, which dared to explore complex musical compositions on a 16-bit MIDI platform. The result is at turns inky and brilliant, and “Aquatic Ambience,” which plays over underwater levels, conjures images of vast watery landscapes.
Chief Keef - Go Harder
In one of the more unlikely combinations on the mix, the often gun-toting rapper samples a cartoony video game set in the playful universe of Super Mario. In Square’s RPG rendition of Mario, the characters are given life unlike ever before, with thoughts and concerns that inform their actions in the game in a way that can only be described as adorable.
Dom Kennedy - Locals Only
Sampled Yasunori Mitsuda - Chrono Trigger - Secret of the Forest (1:45 in)
Dom Kennedy is hardly the first thing to come to mind when you think of time-traveling knights, but this vintage-sounding song feels right at home with one of the most important RPGs in history. In Chrono Trigger, this song plays over a scene in which you must convince a sword-swinging frog to rejoin your quest.
Gucci Man ft Lil Wayne - I Make Movies
‘nuff said.
Wiz Khalifa - Never Been
In Chrono Trigger, the protection of a character named Schala has the potential to alter history itself. Her theme, at once optimistic and a little mournful, reflects the dying civilization she comes from, whose technological prowess could not outstrip the greed of its rulers.
Zombi Squad - No Doubt
It is your humble servant’s opinion that no other Final Fantasy game could come close to matching Final Fantasy VIII’s story of two lovers divided by time and space. And it continues to inspire more than just hip-hop: without spoiling either work, a scene from the recent film The Martian beautifully evokes the game’s protagonist — the moody gunblade champion Squall — in a desperate struggle against zero gravity.
Lil B - I Love You
#tybg