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Austin: Well, that's it for today. Let's wrap it up. Adam and Reed: Rap! He said rap! Let's hit it!
— The Reduced Shakespeare Radio Show
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, TV Tropin' is the game! UHHH!!
Examples:
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 rereleased the series with an English dub track containing the original Japanese score, 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.
- Bakuretsu Tenshi.
- 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.
Film
Live-Action TV
Radio
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 III: Third Strike intro had one. The character select screen was also rappy.
- Persona3 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
- Tempo: "Tempo, check it out you know / He makes it funky, and he's good to go..."
Western Animation
- Hey, paisanos! It's the The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!
We're the Mario brothers and plumbin's our game! We're not like the others who get all the fame! When your sink is in trouble you can call us on the double! When hangin' with the plumbers you'll get hooked on the brothers! Uh!
- 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.
- The latest George of the Jungle cartoon featured a hip hop theme song.
- Parodied on The Simpsons when the family went to see an Anachronism Stew So Bad, It's Good (at least to Bart) Zorro movie.
From the "Z" to the "O" to the double "R" "O" He's the dude in the mask from the barrio. With his horse and his mask and his big old sword He'll cut your butt from a '52 Ford.
- 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.
Alright, it's time for me to bust a rhyme!
Sit back and chill for a while,
I'm comin' at ya, like toon-style,
So get ready for a funny-bone overload at the Little Shop!
- The end credits to the Family Guy episode "Peter Griffin: Husband, Father...Brother?" has Peter performing a rap remix of the theme song, complete with black backup singers.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2012 will be using this kind of theme - essentially it's a hip-hop update of the theme to the original western animation series.
We out, PEACE!
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