ReMix:Mega Man X8 "Es-cop-ay" 3:28

Well here's something you don't hear every day: KingTiger (R. Corey Oltman) hits us with a Mega Man X5 & X8 hip-hop/trap joint with original lyrics & rapping that comes off a little nerdcore in its delivery & has some sweet production treatments and transitions:

"Hi, guys, I'm submitting my 5th round remix from the Sigma Fortress Remix Gauntlet that Shariq's currently running. I'm really proud of the production on this, especially with how clean the vocals came out; I'm also really glad with how well I was able to execute the concept. I was planning to make a rap song the entire time, but with other things in life taking priority (family, my j-o-b, etc.), I wound up writing, recording, and mixing the vocals all on the last day. And, although he doesn't wish to be credited in the remix, I do want to extend a HUGE thanks to my teammate bLiNd for being a rock star and mastering this thing last-minute in like 10 minutes.

I'm super happy to finally have a rap track that I think meets OCR's standards. I love doing rap because I don't have to worry about pitch or proper vowel/diphthong enunciation nearly as much, and there's a lot more room to express your thoughts and try clever things. It's also a great avenue for venting your frustrations with life and/or the world at large, as is the case with this track. Confession time: for the double-time bridge portion of the song, because I had virtually no time to practice, I slowed the song down to 100 BPM to record the lyrics and then sped it back up to 128 BPM, so I guess that makes me a horrible cheater D:, but whatevs.

I focused heavily on using the chords & progressions from the gauntlet source ("Sigma Palace" from X8), but I also used other melodic/harmonic elements from it and my Maverick's theme ("Crescent Grizzly/Grizzly Slash" from X5, name depends on which part of the world you're from). I used a key that neither source is in (fm). The sub-bass on this is killer, so make sure you're using a good set of headphones/speakers to hear it."

Mastering from bLiNd certainly never hurt anyone :) Bass is indeed deep & satisfying, and overall production is really slick & crisp, yet it's the vocal delivery that'll probably decide things for most listeners. I was a little iffy at first, but R.'s flow gets better as the mix progresses, and the breakdown at 2'47" had me legit head-bobbin'...so stick with it & see where it goes, eh? Gario writes:

"Ah, KingTiger and his rapping. I've been a fan of it for a while, and he brings his A-game, here. The music rightly makes the rap the center of attention, relegating the source references all to the background. It's different from making the sources the center of attention, but at the same time it works well like that. The production is pretty clean, and the vocals are front and center, as they should be."

Chimpazilla adds:

"Wow I like this, it's super creative! The rapping is really good. Vocals are mixed well although they are just a bit too far forward. The processing on the vocals is cool, good use of centered and side vocals. The super fast final vocals are awesome... I think there's enough source, the chords from either source are apparent throughout the track."

Ditto that point on vocal processing; well-executed, sounds good. KingTiger has a particular voice & cadence that I associate with nerdcore; not an especially urban characterization, perhaps? But I think we've seen enough evidence by now that rapping is a diverse art form that can be done in many ways, by many people. It took some time for this mix to win me over, but by the end I was getting into it, and the construction & production being so tight greatly facilitated things. Unexpected & different direction from KT, but he makes it work & clearly has some fun in the process!