Creepy Trailer style cover of 90s hip hop

[todddunnigan]

This one is a tough nut to crack.
"DARK, REIMAGINED TRAILER-Style COVERS of HIT '90's HIP-HOP SONGS" - ok
"We're looking for Covers with a high-quality, mysterious vibe. Darker-toned stuff – nothing too bright or happy will work." - awesome
"We think you can get pretty creative in your approach for this request. You could incorporate Orchestral instrumentation to create a huge epic vibe, or pare the Songs down to a more minimal, eerie arrangement. No matter what approach you decide to take, your submissions NEED to have the dark, mysterious vibe this Library wants.+ - killer!

Here are the example songs from the client - Shimmy Shimmy Ya - ODB & Insane in the Brain - Cypress Hill.......!?!? - what?
They didn't send cover versions, just referenced those songs.

Link to the listing
https://www.taxi.com/industry#listing-S210806TR

OK, if I'm reading this right, they want dark, mysterious versions of silly 90s party hip hop songs. Is this supposed to play for the comedic effect of the silly lyrics against the dark sound?
I emailed the head screener and asked, long story short, no help there. I watched other trailer versions that used 90s hip hop party songs, pretty much they played for the comedy, but I don't feel this as comedic.

OK, I'm stumped, so here's what we came up with, does this sound like the right approach?
https://soundcloud.com/true-swans/rough ... ICgvkbHyxY

[Zaychi]

Well the listing text also says:
" We recommend sticking as close to the original melodies, lyrics, and lyrical flows of the original Songs as possible so they're recognizable to listeners. "

and this doesn't seem to stick with the "rythmic flow" at all. "Slim Shady" as a phrase is obviously recognizable though. But I'd say, they're looking for rapper-style vocals staying close to the original versions over trailer instrumentation. I was also looking at this listing and thinking of "Come with me" by Puff Daddy, which is already pretty trailerish in the original version... then again, how to do that better? Maybe take the slim shady original rap, then remove the original beat and instrumentation and trailerize it??

I also noticed this listing did NOT include the usual "no profanity" clause, which would be hard to adhere to with 90's rap lyrics

"Killing in the name of" by Rage Against also sprung to my mind as a song that might be suitable for trailer instrumentation...

Truth it, I don't know either!

[cosmicdolphin]

I think it's a decent effort but my main issue is lyrically I'm not really sure it's usable for a trailer because it's just mostly Eminem talking about himself..it's not really a universal lyric

My other issue is technically it's not a 90's song either..nor does it 'feel' 90's like some early 2000's stuff does, the references are early/mid 90s and have a different vibe.

[todddunnigan]

Right!, You hit upon the conundrum that we found. The 2 examples they gave are particularly kind of goofy. "I like it raaaawwwww, I like it RAAAWWWWW!!" How do you maintain any sort of creepy vibe while singing that anywhere near the original? So we just went full on creepy and what's more creepy that a young girl singing in a high pitched voice?
The listing gives a lot of information, which is welcomed, but some of the stuff seems contradictory.
"Feel free to get creative with this one!" - yeah!
"Stay as close to the original melody, etc...." - wait, what?
OK, which is it?
We leaned towards the dark vibe, I guess cause they mentioned that more times in the listing, and it's hard to keep it dark with lines like "Jackin' off with Jergens"
We also picked a song that has an odd cadence to the rap, especially in the verses, it doesn't fall in to an easy cadence, every line is different.
I appreciate the input, this one is a head scratcher.
It was fun to make though.

[cosmicdolphin]

I think in these cases you have to think of an end user cutting a trailer and ask could it work ?

Rather than best yourself up too much with the Listing semantics.

[todddunnigan]

I think it's a decent effort but my main issue is lyrically I'm not really sure it's usable for a trailer because it's just mostly Eminem talking about himself..it's not really a universal lyric

My other issue is technically it's not a 90's song either..nor does it 'feel' 90's like some early 2000's stuff does, the references are early/mid 90s and have a different vibe.

Now that is something we should have considered. I think because of the word "Shady" and the "Please stand up" part. I pictured something like a Slenderman kind of creature slowly standing up. However, it's true that Slim Shady is the guys alter ego name and that kind of makes it not useful. Maybe we'll try another one.

[irthlingz]

... my main issue is lyrically I'm not really sure it's usable for a trailer because it's just mostly Eminem talking about himself..it's not really a universal lyric

Now that is something we should have considered. I think because of the word "Shady" and the "Please stand up" part. I pictured something like a Slenderman kind of creature slowly standing up. However, it's true that Slim Shady is the guys alter ego name and that kind of makes it not useful. Maybe we'll try another one.

So many of this genre are like that to one extent or another. I was listening to some Notorious B.I.G.; he could be a good source for this, since he never made it out of the 90s. Maybe something like Ready to Die? He only mentions himself about six times in that one (either as "Biggie Smalls" or "the Notorious One"). I guess that rules it out?

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Michael