Theme Tune Rap
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Austin: Well, that's it for today. Let's wrap it up. —The Reduced Shakespeare Radio Show
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Yo, peeps!
So you got a new show,
And it's totally hip,
Then you need a Theme Tune,
That's a total mind trip
Down Iambic Boulevard,
And Expository Lane,
It's the Theme Tune Rap,
All The Tropin' is the game!
UHHH!!
Examples of Theme Tune Rap include:
Anime
- Machine Robo Battle Hackers' intro is one of these.
- Pokémon had a couple of these. The "GS Pokerap" was co-opted for the Pokemon Chronicles opening. More recently, TAJ made their own rap Ending Theme for the last couple of seasons and the Season 10 Opening Theme.
- One Piece in the 4Kids dub is a famous example.
- Yo ho ho, he took a bite of gum gum!
- FUNimation gave Dragon Ball GT a rap theme song in its initial release, to cater to the Periphery Demographic of young black teens. When they went back and redid the series with a more straight transition, this was replaced with an English version of "Dan Dan Kokoro Hikareteru" sung by Vic Mignogna.
- Tenjou Tenge has the unfortunate luck of having an opening theme that sounds a bit too much like a 4Kids opening.
- The intro of Samurai Champloo is one of the few well-received examples, which comes as no surprise seeing as the integration of hip hop was the entire premise of the series.
- Burst Angel.
- Bleach's 1st OP
- Naruto Shippuden's 1st OP.
- A rather odd example: Naruto's German opening is a rap in English, which is also a Title Theme Tune.
- Goku Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei had a remixed version of Kuusou Rumba that overlayed some of the original song with hip-hop. Some fans of the series consider this to be better than the original version of the song or any of the other remixes.
- Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann's main theme wasn't a rap song, but the song used as the Dai-Gurren Brigade's theme is. The full title is "Rappu wa Kan no Tamashii da! Muri o Toshite Dori o Kettobasu! Ore-tachi Dai-Guren-dan no Tema o Mimi no Ana Kappojite Yo~ku Kikiyagare!!", which roughly translated means "Rap is a Man's Soul! We Kick Reason to the Curb to Make the Impossible Possible! Open up Your Ears and Listen to Our Team Dai-Gurren Theme!!", better known as Raw Raw Fight The Power.
- CALLING ALL SPI-DAH RI-DAHHHHHHS!!! Let's ride.
- Rail Wars! starts its ending theme with a rap.
Film
- Will Smith did Theme Tune Raps for Men in Black and Wild Wild West. They were both pretty damn catchy.
- Both of The Addams Family movies.
- Robin Hood: Men in Tights. What's hip-hop doing in 12th-century England? Don't ask.
- The end credits to Ghostbusters 2 ("On Our Own" by Bobby Brown (yeah, him.)).
- Also the end credits to The Film of the Series of Dragnet. Rap performed by stars Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks.
- "T-U-R-T-L-E Power" by Partners in Kryme from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie and Vanilla Ice's "Ninja Rap" from the sequel.
- Maniac Cop 2 has a particularly So Bad It's Good one - maybe the only rap song to rhyme uzi with jaccuzi.
- Blood Diamond, of all films, had one of these.
- LL Cool J rapped over the credits to Deep Blue Sea, which he co-starred in.
- Likewise, Tone Loc contributed a rap for the credits of Ace Ventura Pet Detective.
- Amos And Andrew has one in "Suburbian Nightmare" by Sir Mix-A-Lot, which plays over the credits and recaps the whole plot from the point of view of Samuel L. Jackson's character.
Live-Action TV
- The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, where Will Smith tells you a story all about how his life got flipped-turned upside down. This Expository Theme Tune became extremely popular among Image Board anons, but my mom got scared she said you're moving with your auntie and uncle in Bel-Air.
- Power Rangers Mystic Force and Power Rangers Operation Overdrive were both utter nonsense in completely different ways.
- Ryutaros in Kamen Rider Den-O gets a "hip-hop" remix of the show's Dancing Theme that's only used in his dancing scenes. Complete with beatbox and dance posse.
- Kenan and Kel had one, performed by Coolio.
- All That also had one, performed by the late Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes from TLC. "This is just an introduction, before we blow your mind..."
- Not to mention the hook was a total Ear Worm...
- At the circus the Doctor and Ace go see/In The Greatest Show in the Galaxy/The Ringmaster's patter is done in rap/As he introduces the next new act/Who's always a visitor to the show/And into the ring is soon to go.
- The All New Mickey Mouse Club modified the Mickey Mouse Club March into a rap song for its closing credits. "Micka-Micka-Micka-Mickey Mouse / Rock da house!"
Radio
- The Reduced Shakespeare Company Radio Show has several humorously Totally Radical raps performed by "three white boys ripping off black culture" (as the company calls themselves), including their notorious rap version of Othello.
Video Games
- Donkey Kong 64's cheesy-yet-still-fun "DK Rap", which also appears in the "Kongo Jungle" stage of Super Smash Bros. Melee, albeit rerecorded so they could Bowdlerize the one use of "helluva" to "heckuva".
- Which is odd, considering DK64 was rated E, and Smash Bros. Melee was rated T...
- Gears of War has an ending theme rap composed entirely of in-game lines spoken by Augustus "Cole Train" Cole.
- Call of Duty 4's ending theme is a rap performed by Sgt. Griggs.
- The World Ends With You features a strange conglomeration of this, Anime Theme Song, and Surreal Theme Tune. See the entry on the latter page for more info, but in a nutshell: take the background music of an Anime Theme Song, the lyrics of a Surreal Theme Tune, and the vocal stylings of a Theme Tune Rap and you have the song Twister.
- To the point where hearing a breathy bass-voiced rapper deadpanning that he "Need some mo' candy cane" is a bit of a Narm.
- Penny Arcade Adventures: Episode One had one for their end credits.
- Street Fighter 3: Third Strike intro had one. The character select screen was also rappy.
- Persona 3 FES new opening was a Rap Remix of the original.
- My name is Knuckles; unlike Sonic I don't chuckle...I'd rather flex my muscles
Western Animation
- Hey, paisanos! It's the Super Mario Bros Super Show!
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We're the Mario brothers and plumbin's our game! |
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- The last season of Garfield and Friends replaced the theme with one of these. The DVD release pretends it didn't.
- The Boondocks. The animation style in Boondocks was also influenced by Samurai Champloo. Of course, it probably would've had one even if it wasn't...
- Yo, Danny Fenton, he was just fourteen, when his parents built a very strange machine...
- Yin Yang Yo! Yo.
- Haven't listened it myself, but this editor certainly wasn't surprised to learn that the new George of the Jungle cartoon featured a hip hop theme song.[please verify]
- Parodied on The Simpsons when the family went to see an Anachronism Stew So Bad It's Good (at least to Bart) Zorro movie.
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From the "Z" to the "O" to the double "R" "O" |
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- Aqua Teen Hunger Force...number one in the hood, G.
- The new version of the classic Transformers theme for Transformers Cybertron had a hint of this to it.
- The BOTS Master opened with one.
- Static Shock All over the place, even the villains had their own original rap tunes.
- Hammerman has one by MC Hammer himself.
- As did Kid 'N Play, naturally. Though in this case, they simply used their hit track "Rollin' with Kid 'N' Play".
- The Captain Planet closing theme. Go planet!
- The "Little Shop" cartoon has one. Performed by the plant. If your previous knowledge of "Little Shop of Horrors" comes from the movies and the stage musical, in which the plant constantly eats characters while screaming for blood, it's really quite alarming.
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Alright, it's time for me to bust a rhyme! |
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We out, PEACE! |
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