Aww yeah, again and again! Here we are, halfway through the month- we’ve had bars, we’ve had samples, we’ve had DJs, we’ve introduced each other to hip hop, we took a trip around the world, and hopefully we’ve heard some new music and gotten back to some old favorites while we’re at it.
It’s extraordinary that hip hop as a culture, and rap as an emergent genre of music became such an indelible part of mass entertainment so quickly. That it did so despite the pervasive racism, disrespect, demonization, minimization, and exploitation of the music industry, in the context of a deeply conservative era in American culture is the stuff of legend.
And it’s no surprise that at various points in its history, hip hop has appeared in other cultural artifacts, from movies to TV shows. We all know how integral music can be to film and television- heck, even the right song in a commercial can change everything! The golden era of the ‘Original Motion Picture Soundtrack’ of the 80s and 90s in Hollywood just happens to coincide with the rise of hip hop in mass culture.
Today, we’re here to talk about hip hop needle drops in film and television! It can be a song that is inextricably tied to a film, like ‘Stoop Rap’, from the Wild Style original soundtrack:
Or it can be a true needle drop, a song that isn’t native to the film or tv show or commercial, but brilliantly used, like this one, from Jordan Peele’s Up:
There are so many good choices out there, from ‘Lose Yourself’ in 8 Mile to ‘Ooh la la’ playing at the end of an episode of Ozark– hip hop has had a storied presence in film and tv soundtracks!
1.) The tricky/fun thing about this 30 day ‘challenge’ is that you get one choice (see, it’s a challenge!). Soundtracks to films, songs used in commercials, a needle drop at just the right moment during an episode on TV- go ahead, find one and share it with us! You don’t have to find the part of the movie/tv show/whatever where the song plays-you can just post the song and tell us about it.
2.) In order to keep the thread from borking, please limit yourself to one YouTube/media link per post. If someone ‘beats you to it’ and posts a song you would’ve posted, reply under their post saying why you like this song/why it was your pick as well, etc. Let’s not give Disqus a reason to make the thread hard to navigate for those of us listening to the songs! If you want to mention some others, of course that’s fine!
3.) Let’s keep this as positive as we can. Don’t yuck anyone’s yum, don’t snark on someone who may not be as familiar as others, don’t ‘Um, actually’ people, etc. Remember that it’s not always possible to know what a song or artist means to someone, and try to give grace around that. Ain’t nobody earning any Internet Points out here.