Austin: Well, that's it for today. Let's wrap it up.
Adam and Reed: Rap! He said rap! Let's hit it!
Adam and Reed: Rap! He said rap! Let's hit it!
Yo, peeps!
So you got a new show,
And it's totally hip,
Then you need a Theme Tune,
That's a total mind trip
Down Iambic Boulevard,
And Expository Lane,
It's the Theme Tune Rap,
TV Tropin' is the game!
UHHH!!
Examples:
- Machine Robo Battle Hackers' intro is one of these.
It's also an example from' 1988, quite a while before rap became the new hip thing in da block.
- Pokémon: The Series had a couple of these.
- "Pokémon World", the theme for the Orange Islands arc, starts off with a rap. "So you wanna be a master of Pokémon?"
- The "GS Pokérap" was co-opted for the Pokémon Chronicles opening.
- More recently, TAJ made their own rap Ending Theme for the last couple of seasons (Pokémon Go, perhaps better known by its opening line "Pokémon masters, your heat beats faster...")
- TAJ also made the Season 10 Opening Theme a rap, simply called "Diamond and Pearl".
- One Piece in the 4Kids dub is a(n in)famous example. "He's made of rubber!" "How'd that happen?" "Yo ho ho, he took a bite of Gum Gum!"
- Funimation gave Dragon Ball GT a rap theme song in its initial release to cater to the Periphery Demographic of young Black teens, inspired by fan OVAs that utilized rock music throughout Z's run. When they went back and re-released the series with an English dub track containing the original Japanese score, this was replaced with an English version of "Dan Dan Kokoro Hikareteru" sung by Vic Mignogna.
- Tenjho Tenge has a remix of the Japanese hip hop classic "Bomb A Head!" as its theme note .
- The intro of Samurai Champloo is one of the few well-received examples, which comes as no surprise seeing as the integration of hip hop was the entire premise of the series.
- Burst Angel.
- Bleach's 1st OP
- Naruto Shippuden's 1st OP.
- Danganronpa: The Animation's opening, by the Delaware rap group the 49ers.
- A rather odd example: Naruto's German opening is a rap in English, which is also a Title Theme Tune.
- Lupin III: The Italian Adventure: The Italian opening is a rap song.
- Goku Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei had a remixed version of Kuusou Rumba that overlayed some of the original song with hip-hop. Some fans of the series consider this to be better than the original version of the song or any of the other remixes.
- Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann's main theme wasn't a rap song, but the song used as the Dai-Gurren Brigade's theme is. The full title is "Rappu wa Kan no Tamashii da! Muri o Toshite Dori o Kettobasu! Ore-tachi Dai-Guren-dan no Tema o Mimi no Ana Kappojite Yo~ku Kikiyagare!!", which roughly translated means "Rap is a Man's Soul! We Kick Reason to the Curb to Make the Impossible Possible! Open up Your Ears and Listen to Our Team Dai-Gurren Theme!!".
- CALLING ALL SPI-DAH RI-DAHHHHHHS!!! Let's ride.
- Samurai Pizza Cats (the Gag Dub of Kyatto Ninden Teyandee) uses one.
- Digimon: The Movie gave us the "Digirap", essentially taking the main theme and adding in cheesy rap verses while also putting "Digi-" at the beginning of select words.
- Will Smith did Theme Tune Raps for Men in Black and Wild Wild West. They were both pretty damn catchy.
- Robin Hood: Men in Tights. The group of minstrels who frame the story do so using this trope. What are hip-hop and dark-skinned people doing in 12th-century England? Don't ask.
- The end credits to Ghostbusters II ("On Our Own" by Bobby Brown (yeah, him.)).
- Also the end credits to 1987's The Film of the Series of Dragnet. Rap performed by stars Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks.
- "T-U-R-T-L-E Power" by Partners in Kryme from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) and Vanilla Ice's "Ninja Rap" from the sequel.
- Maniac Cop 2 has one in its ending credits - maybe the only rap song to rhyme uzi with jaccuzi.
- Blood Diamond, of all films, had one of these.
- LL Cool J rapped over the credits to Deep Blue Sea, which he co-starred in.
- Likewise, Tone Loc contributed a rap for the credits of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.
- Amos & Andrew has one in "Suburbian Nightmare" by Sir Mix-A-Lot, which plays over the credits and recaps the whole plot from the point of view of Samuel L. Jackson's character.
- The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, where Will Smith (credited as a part of his then-group, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince) tells you a story all about how his life got flipped-turned upside down. This Expository Theme Tune became extremely popular among Imageboard anons, but my mom got scared she said you're moving with your auntie and uncle in Bel-Air.
- Power Rangers Mystic Force and Power Rangers Operation Overdrive are the only entries in the Power Rangers series to use one.
- Ryutaros in Kamen Rider Den-O gets a "hip-hop" remix of the show's Dancing Theme that's only used in his dancing scenes. Complete with beatbox and dance posse.
- Kenan & Kel had one, performed by Coolio.
- All That also had one, performed by the late Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes from TLC. "This is just an introduction, before we blow your mind..."
- Doctor Who: At the circus the Doctor and Ace go see/In The Greatest Show in the Galaxy/The Ringmaster's patter is done in rap/As he introduces the next new act/Who's always a visitor to the show/And into the ring is soon to go.
- The All New Mickey Mouse Club modified the Mickey Mouse Club March into a rap song for its closing credits. "Micka-Micka-Micka-Mickey Mouse / Rock da house!"
- Deadpool: "Boom!", the first song on the soundtrack is sung from the title character's perspective and crosses over with Bragging Theme Tune.
- How Did This Get Made? uses an alternate version of its normal theme song during its live shows, which name-drops films the series has reviewed in the past.
- 205 Live, WWE's dedicated show for their Cruiserweight division, has "Hail the Crown" by CFO$ feat. From Ashes to New.
- NXT UK has "Dusted" by Astroid Boys.
- The Reduced Shakespeare Company Radio Show has several humorously Totally Radical raps performed by "three white boys ripping off Black culture" (as the company calls themselves), including their notorious rap version of Othello.
- The theme tune to the radio verison of The Lenny Henry Show, in which he raps about his career to date:
Lenny: It was 1975, I was just seventeen,
Started off with impressions, d'you know what I mean?
Moved on to the clubs with a handful of jokes,
Going up and down the country saying "Great to be here, folks!"
Then I got my own show, it was on the TV,
There weren't a lot of people there who looked like me.
Now I've got a brand new thing, it's going to be a big hit,
I've just got one question: What am I going to call it?
Singer: It's The Lenny Henry Show.
Lenny: Yeah, but where's it going to be, man?
Singer: On the ra-di-o-o-o.
Lenny: Good idea, let's do that!
- Donkey Kong 64's cheesy-yet-still-fun "DK Rap", which also appears in the "Kongo Jungle" stage of Super Smash Bros. Melee, albeit rerecorded so they could Bowdlerize the one use of "helluva" to "heckuva".
- Enter the Gungeon has the titular theme which plays not only at the main screen, but also after finishing the final boss of any of the Gungeoneers. Even better when it's against The Lich.
- Gears of War has an ending theme rap composed entirely of in-game lines spoken by Augustus "Cole Train" Cole.
- Call of Duty 4's ending theme is a rap performed by Sgt. Griggs.
- The World Ends with You features a strange conglomeration of this, Anime Theme Song, and Surreal Theme Tune. See the entry on the latter page for more info, but in a nutshell: take the background music of an Anime Theme Song, the lyrics of a Surreal Theme Tune, and the vocal stylings of a Theme Tune Rap and you have the song Twister. To the point where hearing a breathy bass-voiced rapper deadpanning that he "Need some mo' candy cane" is a bit of a Narm.
- Penny Arcade Adventures: Episode One had one for their end credits.
- Street Fighter III: Third Strike intro had one. The character select screen was also rappy.
- Persona 3 FES new opening was a Rap Remix of the original.
- "You can call me Knuckles; unlike Sonic I don't chuckle... I'd rather flex my muscles..."
- Tempo: "Tempo, check it out you know / He makes it funky, and he's good to go..."
- Used for the ending theme of the original Gex.
- Toe Jam And Earl: Panic on Funkotron has the All There in the Manual "Funkotron Rap."
- Best and Bester has one, which can be heard here.
- Hey, paisanos! It's The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!!
We're the Mario brothers and plumbin's our game!
We're not like the others who get all the fame!
If your sink is in trouble, you can call us on the double!
We're faster than the others, you'll be hooked on the brothers!
Uh! - The Boondocks. The animation style in Boondocks was also influenced by Samurai Champloo. Of course, it probably would've had one even if it wasn't...
- Young Danny Fenton, he was just fourteen, when his parents built a very strange machine...
- Yin Yang Yo!. Yo.
- The latest George of the Jungle cartoon featured a hip hop theme song.
- Parodied on The Simpsons when the family went to see an Anachronism Stew So Bad, It's Good (at least to Bart) Zorro movie.
From the "Z" to the "O" to the double "R" "O"
He's the dude in the mask from the barrio.
With his horse and his mask and his big old sword
He'll cut your butt from a '52 Ford. - Aqua Teen Hunger Force...number one in the hood, G.
- The new version of the classic Transformers theme for Transformers Cybertron had a hint of this to it.
- The BOTS Master opened with one.
- Static Shock: All over the place, even the villains had their own original rap tunes.
- Hammerman has one by MC Hammer himself.
- As did Kid 'N Play, naturally. Though in this case, they simply used their hit track "Rollin' with Kid 'N' Play".
- The Captain Planet closing theme. Go planet!
- The Little Shop cartoon has one. Performed by the plant. If your previous knowledge of "Little Shop of Horrors" comes from the movies and the stage musical, in which the plant constantly eats characters while screaming for blood, it's really quite alarming.
Alright, it's time for me to bust a rhyme!Sit back and chill for a while,I'm comin' at ya, like toon-style,So get ready for a funny-bone overload at the Little Shop!
- The end credits to the Family Guy episode "Peter Griffin: Husband, Father...Brother?" has Peter performing a rap remix of the theme song, complete with Black backup singers.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) uses this kind of theme - essentially a hip-hop update of the theme to the 1987 cartoon. Prior to that, the third opening to the Japanese dub of the 2003 cartoon, "Everybody", also included quite a lot of rapping.
- In the 7th (and final) season of Garfield and Friends, an upbeat rap-based theme song was used, sung by J.R. Johnston. (The theme song was disliked by many Garfield fans, so it was replaced with "We're Ready to Party" on DVD, although Garfield's original quotations are kept intact.)
- Filmation's The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse, Heckle and Jeckle, and Quackula sort of does this.
- Another sort of example is Dynomutt, Dog Wonder.
- Gilligan's Planet (another Filmation production) does this.
- "Deep, deep in the forest, far away from everywhere, live a bunch of mighty little critters. They're called the Paw Paw Bears!..."
- Yogi's Treasure Hunt, which aired on the same block as Paw Paws.note Moreover, the block itself even used an instrumental version of this show's theme (aside from the singers singing "Fun-tastic!") for the block's first three seasons.
- The theme song from the second season of Shirt Tales has the first line sung, but the rest of the song as this trope.
- Da Boom Crew has one that sounds suspiciously similar to Sean Combs' cover of Led Zeppelin's "Come With Me"
- Wild C.A.T.s (1994) theme starts off as an upbeat rock song, then transitions into a rap and then back into rock again.
- Trollkins, another Hanna-Barbera series has this done in certain parts of its theme.
- "It's The Nutshack. It's The Nutshack."
- Gotta get back, back to the past, Samurai Jack!note
- We out, PEACE!
