Street fighter is more than a game, it's a culture. My first introduction to it was playing Street Fighter II with one of my 'uncle's' on his SNES when my family would go round on the weekends. As you can imagine - the excitement as a young kid was a lot. I wanted to go there every weekend. Whenever that dreaded knock on the door came, awakening me from my trance, and signalling that it was time to go, it was like my world was ending. But, luckily, with most african parents (especially Nigerian) even when they said they were ready to go you could still get anywhere up to a a few hours more time by getting them to discuss politics.
It was another world to me. First of all the intro music. The music for the original release and the '94 Super Street Fighter II is rivalled only by the Pokémon (Red) theme. My foray into rock music probably stems from this intro. After those weekend exposures the only place I could play was the arcade in the bowling alley on the opposite side of the estate. That pilgrimage was the most exciting thing back then. Obviously the game is a classic but what really struck me and still does today is a the music. The legacy of the game is largely down to the chiptune genius Yoko Shimomura who features in the documentary. The themes for Chun-Li, Guile & Vega are untouchable. Between the euphoric trumpet blasts, the mystical oriental melodies and Guile's overly emotional ending and theme music she has got enough classics to last a lifetime.
Grime heads will instantly tell where the likes of Dizzee and Rapid found some of their inspiration as producers. Dizzee's own ode 'Street Fighter' which samples Chun Li's ending theme , Rapid's 'Lethal Injection', Pied Piper', 'Your Love Feels', any of Kid D's R&G stuff and countless others are really just extensions of her 16 bit anthems. Hyper coloured synths, horn blasts, those sounds from Tekken, square wave bass and you have grime. The same goes for synth heavy works of Zaytoven, Zomby et al.
A Few examples of grime records that capture that video game sound.
Whilst Grime is inherently aggressive and raw - owing to its origins in some of the darkest, most dangerous and run down areas of London - some of the instrumentals are amongst the most motivational, inspirational and colourful of any genre. This is not meant to be a post on Grime but given that the name of the blog is taken from my favourite Ruff Sqwad song it's only fitting. You only need to see the amount of Youtube hits on D Double E's 'Street Fighter Riddim' to see the cross-generational appreciation for both Grime and Street Fighter - with nearly 3,000,000 hits its up there with 'Next Hype' 'Pow 2011' and 'Fix Up Look Sharp'. The similarities between Street Fighter and Grime undeniable. They are both about competition - who is the best? Whether it's clashing on radio or battling it out at the arcade in the end its all for the glory.
I was completely occupied with Tekken 2 ( its incredible OST which deserves) until Alpha 3 came around. With retrospect I appreciate that Tekken characters didn't have hadoukens (Devil had those laser beams eyes though) but at the time spectacle of super finishing combos had me fully gassed. Before, I had been a button basher and everyone knows that feeling of when you first manage to do a super move so with the clearer controls I could finally master them. It also had the arcade's high speed, Evil Ryu and the near impossible boss Akuma. The previous games had always been highly stylised but the art of Alpha 3 took it to the next level.
Minus the weak rapping the documentary is fairly insightful but be warned unless you are a serious gaming nerd it's not for you! That said if you like grime you'll be familiar with a bunch of guys in a room hyping over what to normal people seems insignificant; so this is just your thing. THAT Wong v Daigo battle is up there with any clash.
GEM : Joker just released his own Sega inspired mini album which you can download below.
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