A Nightmare on Elm Street 4 (1988): “Are You Ready for Freddy?” by the Fat Boys / “A Nightmare on My Street” by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince
And now we get to the Great Freddy Rap War of ’88. One of the most ‘80s acts to come out of the ‘80s was the Fat Boys, a trio of upbeat, overweight gentlemen who rubbed elbows with Chubby Checker and the Beach Boys, and also starred in their own screwball comedy called Disorderlies. It’s not that bad! Anyway, they had their own music video for Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, which saw them challenged to spend a night in a haunted house, only to be chased out by a rapping Freddy. I call bullshit, as the Fat Boys were very obviously awake for all of this.
They weren’t the only hokey rap team who wanted a spot on the soundtrack. DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince put together a single called “A Nightmare on My Street” in hopes of making the cut, but no dice. Will Smith reportedly hugged his uncle while tearfully asking why New Line Cinema didn’t want him. It was still released, albeit with a disclaimer pointing out that it had no relation to the movies. A music video was fully produced anyway, but lawyers kept it from airing. They slapped him with a lawsuit and told Smith to keep Freddy’s name out of his fucking mouth.
Beetlejuice (1988): “Day-O” by Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte had already been singing this song for 30 years, but the séance scene from Beetlejuice was such a big deal at the time and gave the song such a shot in the arm that he ended up making a video for it. This one is like 90 percent movie footage, but it does show some alternate and extended shots from the sequence that didn’t make it into the final film.
Outside of the endless montage, we see occasional shots of Harry Belafonte casually walking the city streets alone while singing this song. Normally, I would chalk this up to them filming Belafonte doing his average day-to-day activities, but the ending has him call a cab, only to be surprised to see a terrible superimposed effect of Beetlejuice as the driver. Between this and Scrooged, 1988 was all about smartass, unhygienic ghosts driving cabs, I guess.
Ghostbusters II (1989): “On Our Own” by Bobby Brown
It took a while, but we finally got to an entry about a rap song that explains the plot of the movie during the end credits. Classic. Bobby Brown had some big shoes to fill with making a new Ghostbusters theme and… he does okay. It peaks at its opening line, which is why he repeats it at various times throughout the song.
Instead of being a charming creeper like Ray Parker Jr., Bobby Brown spends the video commandeering video screens, bus posters, and newspaper front pages all across New York City. Just clips of him, his backup singers, and stuff from the movie itself. Like the first film’s video, random celebrities show up, but this time there’s no hook for them to shout at the camera. Instead they all look confused at Brown’s rampage. Appearances include Christopher Reeve, the Ramones, Rick Moranis, and a giant elephant in the room.
