You know that thrill you get when you listen to a song and recognize a sample? Nothing like it, that moment you feel like a super smart music fan and think maybe…just maybe…you and the artists behind the track have similar taste. Exciting! I remember when I first listened to a DJ Shadow album and heard a snippet of a Bjork song, nearly hit my summer-camp bunk bed. Yet what happens when you recognize a sample…and feel a twinge of shame for knowing what it is almost instantly?
OMEGABOY’s newest song “Komakinoin” mashes pulsating, choking fuzz and dance synths against what sounds like a freestyle rap battle of some sort. The song itself is nice, especially the way it seems like the surging music could completely devour the silly rhyming dictionary action happening around it. Truth be told though, it’s tough for me to focus on the music when I instantly recognized the sample two seconds in. If you have any passing knowledge of contemporary professional wrestling, the opening “Hey, Cena!” should be a big hint as it is referring to WWE superstar John Cena who once boasted a “rapper” gimmick which featured a dash of homophobia (on display here!). This specific bit of “freestyling” – which is fake like, oh, every aspect of pro wrestling – comes from this clip which happened before the 2003 edition of the No Mercy pay-per-view. I did not see said 30-dollar program, as I actually stopped actively watching WWE around this time, but I still read about it and went on the occasional YouTube binge. So yeah…OMEGABOY has stirred a lot of strange feelings in me with this one. Listen below.
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