Star Wars Gangsta Rap
| Star Wars Gangsta Rap | |
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| Directed by | Thomas Lee |
| Produced by | Megan Brown June Tedesco |
| Written by | Jason Brannon Chris Crawford |
| Starring | Jason Brannon |
| Distributed by | Atom Films |
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Release date
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Running time
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3.5 min |
| Language | English |
The "Star Wars Gangsta Rap" is a parody song based on the original Star Wars trilogy. The song was later popularized as a Flash animated music video and was the first winner of the Audience Choice Award in the Lucasfilm-sponsored Official Star Wars Fan Film Awards.
The "Star Wars Gangsta Rap" started out as a song, written by Jason Brannon and Chris Crawford, with vocals by Brannon, drum machine by Crawford and Leonard, and keyboard by Brian Leonard. The group billed themselves as Bentframe.
Animator Thomas Lee discovered the rap in 2000 and used it as a basis to practice his developing Flash skills. This became the first (and most widely seen) version of the video. After showing the finished results to Bentframe, they together formed BentTV.
Due to the project's success, BentTV later created an improved version, referred to as the Special Edition, which debuted at the 2004 Official Star Wars Fan Film Awards. The audio track was not changed, but the visuals were completely redrawn, with improved color and shading and more detailed motion, all while emulating the relevant scenes in the movies more closely and adding more. The improvement in animation is analogous to Industrial Light & Magic's 1997 Special Edition film touch-ups.
Employing some of the elements of gangsta rap and hip hop music, stances and dancing, "Star Wars Gangsta Rap" loosely mixes plotlines from the first Star Wars feature its sequel The Empire Strikes Back (and follow-up Return of the Jedi in the Special Edition), satirically recreating several of the more famous scenes and dialogue.
The music video starts out on the back of the Star Destroyer, then reveals the image of Emperor Palpatine who claims "it's not the east or the west side." Darth Vader appears as a rapper sidekick or hypeman and replies "No, it's not." This continues until the Emperor says "it's the Dark Side", at which point Vader says "You are correct." The Emperor then threatens to blow up the planets of "all you Vader haters out there."
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