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Game References in Music

D-X

Member
Just finished listening to the new Kaiser Chiefs album and in the song Oh My God the lyrics are:

"come back stonger than a powered-up Pacman"

Does anyone know any other game references in music?
 
Sole feat. Alias (I think) -- The video game song

You'd be hard pressed to find a line in there that isn't about games! (Yes, I realize this is cheating.)
 
There's a ton. Deltron and The Streets instantly come to mind. And The Smashing Pumpkins were so obsessed with Doom when they recorded Mellon Collie that they used the barrel explosion sound effect in the tune "Where Boys Fear to Tread."
 
Del the Funky Homosapien - Proto Culture ... has more game references than any other song combined :lol

"I've gotta get Xenogears... it's the type of game that relieves my fears!"

Oh yeah, of course you have Lil Flip - Game Over, which samples Pac Man (and the remix samples Mario 1) and D12 and Eminem's Hellbound (which samples Soul Calibur)
 
Vast Aire of Cannibal Ox drops a few, the only three I've got off the top of my head:

On Metal Gear:
My soul is precious metal that I wrap around me, like Mario 64 to be precise

On Life's Ill:
Open your mouth again and I'll open your wrist with one line that resembles a Sonia Blade kiss

On Atom:
Some say I touch hearts like Kano, now every time you see a mic you just say no
 
TekunoRobby said:
There was this song that was specifically about Playstation games, it was a Euro style song. Anyone know the title?

Eiffel 65 - My Console
 
djtiesto said:
Eiffel 65 - My Console
Thanks, just got it along with the Sole and Del songs.

Here are two more:
5-3 Federation - The Legend (Legend of Zelda rap)
Benefit - Warp To World 69
 
The Ataris - Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A B A Start

Wu-Tang Clan - Triumph
"We stand go like flair, escape from your Dragon's Lair", "Iron lung Twisted Metal", "Swingin' swords like Shinobi"

Cassidy - I'm A Hustla
"I was hustlin' my Genesis games"

Redman - Let's Get Dirty
"Similar to the new PlayStation 2" (obviously a dated song now :P)

Notorious BIG - Juicy
"Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, when I was dead broke, man I couldn't picture this"

There's so many game references in hiphop... Lots of rappers are hardcore gamers. I remember reading an interview with Method Man in EGM where he talks about FF7 being his favorite all-time game (so I guess it's more than 16 year old girls and dorks like me who like RPGs...)

It was funny when Kobun Heat posted a sound clip of when he met John Cena (WWE) and got him to rap about oldskool games... him mentioning Mighty Bomb Jack was fucking *AWESOME*

Oh yeah and the lyrics to Proto Culture, here...

Hehe... talking about Bernie Stolar and the Saturn RAM cart :lol :lol
 
Eminem - Hellbound

The whole song is reference to the original Soul Calibur on DreamCast

Eminem ft. Tupac - Murder Murder

He talks about stealing the N64 because when they first came out they were hard to find and the price was tripled.

btw: Eminem is a HUGE Nintendo fan
 
Izzy stradlin sings about "woman playing dr. mario, on the tv, all night long" in shuffle it all off his first solo album

someone told me that "losing my favourite game" by the cardigans is about gran tourismo, its off the album "gran tourismo" so i suspect they might be right :P
 
turok4n64 said:
Eminem - Hellbound

The whole song is reference to the original Soul Calibur on DreamCast
Is that the rap where he uses one of the Soul Calibur songs as the background music/beat?
 
"Human Video Game" by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince is probably the best ever. Not only were all of the lyrics references to great classic arcade games, but even the beatboxing accompaniment mimicked Donkey Kong's BGM!
 
Bloodhound Gang - Mope
Yo yo yo yo yo! What it is motherfuckers?
Aw shit, here comes Pac-Man.
Hey Pac-Man, what's up?
Me you bitches! I'm high on crack! Wanna freebase?
No Pac-Man drugs are bad!
Nope can't help you man.
Pussies. Whoa! Holy shit!
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And the granddady of them all:

- The song "Space Invaders"

"He's hooked he's hooked his brain is cooked"

- And the (wish it weren't) unforgettable "Pac-Man Fever." There's actually a whole album of songs that go with it (the horror, the horror). "Do the Donkey Kong," etc.

- William Shatner, title track from "Had Been"

"Riding on their armchairs
they dream of wealth and fame
Fear is their companion
Nintendo is their game"


- There's a Bob Mould song, too, can't remember the lyrics. Mentions both Nintendo and Playstation.
 
From a top 40 song ("Iesha") back when the genesis and snes were just coming out:

We played Nintendo
This was her very first date
I didn't wanna make it seem to fly
We ate cereal
She couldn't stay out at late
Her mother told her to be home at nine
 
Q-tip - Hey Lyrics

"It seems we gotta, brighten, the damp prison
I'm Nintendo 64 and you Mattel Intellivision
Bustin from no mo' trey-eights, now papi weight"
 
The Ataris have a song where they mention playing Galaga all day. I think it's like the second or third song on their album, "End is Forever." There's also a song called "Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right." Konami Code for life! :lol
 
djtiesto said:
Del the Funky Homosapien - Proto Culture ... has more game references than any other song combined :lol

You gotta love any song that manages to give shoutouts to Panzer Dragoon and Herzog Zwei... in the same line of the song.
 
Hooker said:
System of a Down - Legend of Zelda
NO no no no no no. It's not System of a Down. It's "The Rabbit Joint", some small band who just happened to be confused with SOAD when they did a crazy-ass song about Zelda, and for some reason it's stuck.
 
I think it was Hellfish who sampled: The king of the Iron Fist tournament...enter the Tekken.

CLSM - transmission to mars
references Playstation

Three's a lot
 
Hi-C--"I'll fuck around and do a'Shoryuken!'"

Some band I don't remember" Too stoned, nintendo! She's just the flavor of the week"
 
There's a band called Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A B A Start, though I don't think any of their songs actually deal with games, however the name is straight out of the pages of gaming history.

As far as game references in songs go, I think there was a reference to Defender or Space Invaders in The Beastie Boys - Body Movin'.
 
djtiesto said:
Oh yeah, of course you have Lil Flip - Game Over, which samples Pac Man (and the remix samples Mario 1) and D12 and Eminem's Hellbound (which samples Soul Calibur)

The Postal Service - Brand New Colony

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Molemen - Put Your Quarter Up featuring Aesop Rock, MF Doom and Slug form Atmosphere.
The verses of Aesop and Doom are filled with game references, Doom does that a lot though. But hiphop is filled with videogamereferences. I could go on for hours.
 
Ozma (as if the name of the band wasnt enough) has a few references:

Korobeiniki (the tetris song)
Maybe in an alternate dimension - "The front guard is Link, the Zelda warrior"
Back in 1988 - "Now that I jump as high as Luigi"
Gameover - Heap of generic game references (you cant find my extra life x99, secret codes etc)

I'm sure theres more but thats all i can think of for now.
 
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