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A Wild Rapper Appears
Oh, crap! A random rap!
dascottjr, "Friday", Literal Video Version [1]

You're listening to a pop song, when suddenly, out of nowhere, a rapper jumps into the song. Then, almost as suddenly as he appeared, he disappears into the night, and the song returns to normal.

It can be, but is not necessarily, a rapping bridge. This is generally due to deals made by record companies, since they want to make the most money possible. A similar practice existed in the early 1940s (which could be called A Wild Texan Appears), where a guy with a southern accent suddenly started talking over the music without warning.

Compare with Stealth Hi/Bye.

Examples:

Films

Live-Action TV
  • "Climax Jump (Gun Form)" and "Climax Jump (Den-Liner Form)", two of the many versions of Kamen Rider Den-O's opening theme, both feature a random rap by Ryutaros in the middle.
  • Also from Kamen Rider, a non-bridge example is "Te wo Tsunagou" from Kamen Rider OOO which features random rapping by Ankh.
  • The Conan O'Brien parody of "Friday" had a rapper show up, utterly confused by his own role in the song.
    "Why is there a rapper here?
    What exactly am I here?
    Did I just rhyme 'here' wit 'here'?
    I am getting out of here!"
    "That was a rapper,
    Which makes this a real song!"
  • The German Olympic skater Katarina Witt appeared in several Christmas TV specials in the early 1990s. In one of them, out of nowhere she suddenly breaks into a full-on rap.

Music
  • Katy Perry's "California Gurlz" features a rap by Snoop Dogg.
  • Also by Perry, a version of "E.T." (featured in the music video) had Kanye West doing a rap in it.
  • "Friday", by Rebecca Black, is a well-known example of this trope, provided by producer Patrice Wilson.
  • Justin Bieber frequently has rappers do this in his songs.
  • Ludacris and Lil Wayne frequently enter this as they work in basically everything (the former is one of those who worked with Bieber).
  • Subverted in "Rapture" by Blondie, although considered the Ur Example. Instead of someone else rapping in her song, Debbie Harry does it herself.
  • Jenna Rose's song "My Jeans" has a rapper named Baby Triggy show up in the middle of the song.
  • R.E.M.’s "Radio Song" has KRS-One rapping at the end. Much later Q-Tip would contribute a rap verse to "The Outsiders".
  • "Underneath It All" and "Hey Baby" by No Doubt - but note that Lady Saw and Bounty Killer are Jamaican Dancehall Reggae artistes, rather than rappers.
  • Sonic Youth's "Kool Thing" uses this. Although instead of delivering an actual rap, Chuck D just responds to Kim Deal's spoken monologue with deliberately vague, meaningless hip-hop cliches ("Tell it like it is... Yeah, word up!")
  • Hard 'n' Phirm's "Pi" features fellow comedian/musician Howard Kremer aka Dragon Boy Suede.
  • Kevin Max's "Existence" has a bridge featuring Knowdaverbs from GRITS.
  • 'Alligator Sky' by Owl City.
  • A much earlier example: "Every Little Step" by Bobby Brown has a rap portion, though by Bobby himself.
  • Emilie Autumn, of all people, does this in "Opheliac". It's done by Emilie herself, though.
  • Parodied by inversion in Jack Sparrow by The Lonely Island, where a rap song has a wild Michael Bolton appear...
  • Very common in eurodance music, e.g.:
    • Snap! — Rhythm is a Dancer.
    • La Bouche — Be My Lover.
    • Basic Element — Love 4 Real.
    • Playahitty — The Summer Is Magic. Also done by vocalist herself, not by a guest rapper.
    • And many more, listing them all would be pointless.
  • "Electronic Pleasure" by N-Trance.
  • "Good Kill" by Too Much Joy ends with a rap by KRS-One. Oddly enough, this was released the same year he also appeared on R.E.M.'s "Radio Song".
  • Bad Religion's "Let Them Eat War" features a rap verse by Sage Francis.
  • Parodied on the song "Pop Song" by Jon Lajoie
    And now the token rap verse that doesn't make any sense
    But helps me get a small percentage of the urban music market
  • "Lost+" by Coldplay, courtesy of Jay-Z.
  • Pete Townshend's "Who Are You (Gateway Remix)", which is basically his solo version of The Who song, includes a rap verse by Hame.
  • Inverted in the Eminem song "Stan", which features refrains from pop singer Dido. The song helped get Dido's own single out.
  • The now little-remembered Charity Motivation Song "Voices That Care" included a brief rap by Will Smith. This was even more jarringly, awkwardly done in the Dutch answer to this, “Als je iets kan doen” by Artiesten voor Azië.
  • "We Are The World 2010" has a whole section of this.
  • Parodied by The Axis Of Awesome in their How To Write A Love Song where Lee pops in with a rap in the middle of their R&B love song.
  • "Roll the Bones" by Rush, provided by usual vocalist Geddy Lee, but with his voice drastically altered via studio effects.
  • Madonna's "Give Me All Your Luvin'" kind of doubles up on this - the bridge has both M.I.A. and Nicki Minaj rapping for a few lines each.
  • Michael Jackson's "Black Or White" has a rap bridge credited to a mysterious "L.T.B.". The video had Macaulay Culkin lip sync this part.
  • "Rollin' (The Ballad of Big & Rich)" by Big & Rich has a guest appearance by Cowboy Troy in the middle.
  • Kirsty MacColl's "Walking Down Madison" has a rap bridge by Aniff Cousins. He doesn't entirely appear out of nowhere though - he also gets the spoken line "would you like to see some more?" in the chorus.
  • The Jessie J song "Price Tag" has a rap by B.o.B.
  • The last verse of Riskay's positively delightful Smell Yo Dick.
  • Maroon 5 has Wiz Khalifa appear in "Payphone".
  • Betty Wright And The Roots' Betty Wright: The Movie has three such appearances - Snoop Dogg on "Real Woman", Lil Wayne on "Grapes On A Vine" and Robert "The Messenger" Bozeman on "Hollywould". Though The Roots are a hip-hop group, they only provide instrumentation on the album, and most of the vocals are sung by Betty Wright herself.

Video Games

Web Animation
  • Homestar Runner: Inverted with "Rap Song" by Coach Z (accidentally) featuring Peacey P. The song itself is all rap but has an R&B break, performed by Tenerence Love. "Loading Screens" is a straight example.

Web Original
  • "In the Ocean Blue" from the third series of Charlie The Unicorn
  • This cover of this song.
  • "Do You Wanna Date My Avatar?" by Felicia Day has a wild rap verse performed by Jeff Lewis (Vork).
  • Lampshaded and discussed in the Key of Awesome parody of Katy Perry's "ET":
    Katy Perry: Kanye,/Why are you here?/I don't like this version./You're not on the album.
    Kanye West: Katy, ungh,/Let me be clear, ungh./Every single pop hit/Needs a rapper on it.

Western Animation
  • Inverted in the Phineas and Ferb episode "Spa Day", which has a song with relaxing, lounge music, except for a completely out-of-the-blue rap tune interrupting it in the middle - the catch being that the rap section made up the majority of the song.
  • Total Drama World Tour: Harold interrupts some songs to start rapping, much to the others' annoyance.
  • The Veggie Tales song "BellyButton".
  • The opening theme to Liberty's Kids:
    I take my heart into battle
    Give that freedom bell a rattle
    Gonna have independence signed
    I'll sign right here on the dotted line
    Red, white, and blue, never give up
    We represent America!
  • Schoolhouse Rock has one in the form of a rapping walrus during the solo parts of the otherwise rock & roll-themed "Save the Ocean" in "Earth Rock", provided by Eric "Badlands" Booker.

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