Instances of Hip Hop in Movie Trailers
I pretty much only write about movies or music on this blog. You would think that I would have found away to mix my love of hip hop and movie trailers into a blog post by now. Well that moment is here! This list features 10 times there was a hip hop song in a trailer where I didn't expect it.
Yeah, just like that time Mike Myers didn't expect to get political with Kanye!
Film:
Jarhead (2005)
Song:
Kanye West- "Jesus Walks"
How excited I got:
Not only did I get extremely excited for this movie based on the visuals in the movie and the music in the trailers but the music was actually in the movie too! Some people find this movie boring, but I think it's great. Everyone who feels like there was a big build up to nothing know exactly how Jake Gyllenhaal's character feels in the movie... and that, my friends, is genius!
Film:
Green Hornet (2011)
Song:
Royce da 5'9 (ft. Busta Rhymes)- "Dinner Time"
How excited I got:
Oh boy did this trailer dupe me! I thought the "I don't want to hold your hand" was a sign of amazing moments to come and loved the out of left field Royce song selection. Everything about this trailer said, "this is going to be exactly what you want, YG!" The movie unfortunately did not deliver on any of the promise.
Film:
Contraband (2012)
Song:
Game (ft. Lil Wayne)- "Red Nation"
How excited I got:
Look it doesn't take much for someone who went to see Ted 2 on opening day to get excited for another Mark Whalberg film not directed by M. Night Shyamalan, but I have to say that "digging in the crates" for a Game song that wasn't even a single at the time got me way more excited for this movie than I should have been. I don't even think this is a bad movie. It delivered exactly what I thought a January release date starring Marky Mark would... but still...
Film:
Safe House (2012)
Song:
Jay Z & Kanye West (ft. Frank Ocean)- "No Church in the Wild"
How excited I got:
Great Gatsby pulled the same stunt and both of these movies left me feeling underwhelmed. Unfortunate, given how amazing I think the song is. In the Safe House situation, though, I actually loved the narrative told in the trailer. Amazing soundtrack and Denzel looking like he was going to actually have fun in this movie.
Film:
Gangster Squad (2013)
Song:
Jay Z- "Oh My God"
How excited I got:
Remember before the Dark Knight Rises shooting when this trailer had people shooting their way out from behind a movie screen? That looked really engaging. It's a good idea to take that scene out, but I feel like that could have been the only scene I would've liked in this movie. The Jay Z song (which is not available on YouTube for some reason) made me forget that I'd have to deal with Sean Penn and barely discernible Ryan Gosling line delivery (did he say "you gotta die of something" ????). In short I was duped.
Film:
42 (2013)
Song:
Jay Z (ft. Santigold)- "Brooklyn Go Hard"
How excited I got:
It's not that I was surprised Jay Z's song that references Jackie Robinson and Branch Ricky is in the trailer for a movie about those two people. It's that this song was from another soundtrack and yet so clearly should have been a part of this movie's soundtrack. Good for whoever cut this trailer! The movie wasn't so bad either once you got past the awkward for 15 minutes or so.
Film:
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
Song:
Kanye West- "Black Skinhead"
How excited I got:
I cannot stress enough how much I think this is one of the best trailers ever. Not only did it make me like this Kanye song! It sold me on exactly I was going to get from this movie. I was all sorts of excited for this movie once I saw this trailer and heard Kanye inter-cut between amazing lines from this movie. Then they hit me with the McConaughey interlude!!! Amazing trailer! Amazing movie!
Film:
Neighbors (2014)
Song:
Trick Daddy (ft. Twista & Lil Jon)- "Let's Go"
How excited I got:
Great song choice on this one. It's like a warning sign. If you're not about that ignorant life, you're not going to like this movie at all. There's a certain amount of immaturity needed for this film and I can't think of a better song to connote that than one with Lil Jon yelling at you. And yes, I enjoyed hearing this first year in university banger again. It really hit me in the feels.
Film:
Fantastic Four (2015)
Song:
Kanye West- "Power"
How excited I got:
It's not really the song that got me excited so much as the fact that they dropped the whole Interstellar act for this TV spot and made this movie about people who can stretch, clobber, flame on, and... be invisible and repel things actually seem fun. I also like the meta use of a Kanye song. An artist who's getting as much befuddling hate as the movie itself.
Film:
The Intern (2015)
Song:
Kendrick Lamar- "i"
How excited I got:
As much as I'm always excited to hear King Kendrick, I'm not excited enough to agree to go with Pauline. However, I was surprised when it was revealed that they weren't just using The Isley Brothers- "Who's that Lady". Given the subject matter of this movie I suppose there's an argument for either of the songs being used. What did actually excite me was seeing A-A-ron and not one but two Workaholics in the trailer. I might just go with Pauline yet.
Film:
Black Mass (2015)
Song:
Rick Ross (ft. Jay Z)- "Devil is a Lie"
How excited I got:
I love "Devil is a Lie". You know how people say "it's like watching paint dry,"??? Well I'd watch paint dry if this song was on repeat and have a blast! You add that to a movie where Johnny Depp looks like he's trying something different (aka not putting on make up and being zany) then yeah, I'm pumped for this movie!
Film:
Deadpool (2016)
Song:
Salt-N-Pepa- "Shoop"/DMX- "X Gon Give it to Ya"
How excited I got:
I'm pretty sure that when I saw the script a couple of years the songs were Gwen Stefani- "Hollaback Girl" and DMX- "Party Up" but that's not important. what's important is that we get two hip hop tracks for the price of one in this entry in addition to a trailer that let's me know I was right to be excited about a Deadpool movie before seeing any footage.
-YG