Listen To “Protec ya Princess” Super Mario x WU-TANG CLAN Mashup

Despite the beyond dubious results of an inherently flawed BET poll, WU-Tang Clan is easily the greatest rap crew of all time. Not only did they revolutionize the genre, they changed the manner in which artists were signed, paid, and able to market themselves. Their artistic impact is immeasurable, while their longevity — both as individual artists and as a collective — continues to be a testament to their endless talent and versatility. Further evidence of their cultural importance can be found in how often their music has been used to create album-length mashups with other groundbreaking musical acts including Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd, and The Beatles. In fact, just today, I received my vinyl copy of the particularly inspired WUGAZI project created by “Swiss Andy” Lund (Field Guide, The Millionth Word) and Cecil Otter of the Minneapolis collective, DOOMTREE back in 2011. I even bought an LP titled WU-Xmas released by Cookin Soul a couple of years ago. Clearly, mashing up the Clan with random music isn’t the most original move at this point and should probably be feeling a little played out. Maybe. And, if that’s true, then maybe I’m just a sucker, because a brand new mashup just dropped and, as it turns out, I’m fucking with this one, too. This time around, the boys from Staten Island with the Asian cinema samples are being merged with another iconic New Yorker who finds his roots in Japan and is just as animated as the late Ol Dirty Bastard.

Last night, we came across a clip of Method Man spitting his verse from Wu-Tang Clan‘s debut single, “Protect Ya Neck” over the castle theme music from the early-nineties Super Nintendo game, Super Mario World. Traced back to the account of a producer named Yero The Afropean, the post featured footage from the “Protect Ya Neck“ music video super-imposed over the 16-bit videogame playing in the background. Today, a similar clip followed, only this time with Ghostface Killah‘s portion of the song accompanied by the caption “Coins rule everything around me, happy Halloween yall 🎃🥰” and the promise of “full version in the works.” I’m not sure how long the gap was between that post and the latest one with ODB that announces, “OK FULL VERSION OUT NOW! 🎃🏰🥰” but the full thing is already done. Yero adds, “rushed it but did had to be done today.” Rushed or not, it’s a respectable and enjoyable effort on his part. No idea if this is going to turn into a full album on par with the ones I’ve previously mentioned, but, with the rapid turnaround on this thing, the producer clearly recognizes the importance of striking while the iron is hot. If he does intend to capitalize on any hype from this, then I’d expect the next Mario x Wu-Tang mashup to arrive sooner than later, if not simply something in a related vein, whether that means more chiptune meets Shaolin material, or other videogame hip-hop material in general.

For now, you can check out the full song and video for “Protec Ya Princess” below.