As you hear the words dragons, thrones and magic, you're likely to picture burly, bearded cosplayers, caped nerds crammed around a Dungeon and Dragons circle, and leather adorned metalheads. What you wouldn't expect to find in that mix are mainstream hip-hop artists Big Boi and Common -- but here they are ladies and gents. And trust me, it feels just as awkward to write that phrase as it does to digest it, I'm sure.
Today, Catch the Throne: The Mixtape, the Game of Thrones inspired soundtrack, drops with 10 tracks of urban angst. The HBO series Game of Thrones season 4 premieres April 6, and with this new collaboration, they hope to generate a dialogue that intrigues new viewers. Lucinda Martinez, SVP of Multicultural Marketing at HBO says in a press release, "We are excited to create an additional fan touch point with Catch The Throne: The Mixtape. This is a unique opportunity to give fans great original music and an innovative way to highlight the electrifying 'Game of Thrones' series."
So in short, HBO attempts to expand their audience demographic by showing that rappers and urban folk watch Game of Thrones too? That seems a little silly.
How ever you feel about that is up to you, but at least the music is pretty cool, and it definitely has people talking. The songs feature sampled clips and looped mixes of Game of Thrones themes that offer an epic foundation for the artists to tongue-twist catchy rhymes and hooks. The results of the marriage are relentless vocals provided by artists Big Boi, Common, Magazeen and Wale, among others, that drive the folkloric melodies through industrial beats.
The lyrics of tracks like "Mother of Dragons" seem to evoke a passion and alliance to Khaleesi with lyrics "Like the rehab on my knee/It won't be that much longer/Before Khaleesi take the Iron Throne/They call it the Mother of Dragons/ You under attack, n---a/It's our home," and "Fuck the Lannisters and everyone ridin' with 'em." So you know these guys are watching the show and apparently some -- like Big Boi -- are huge fans.
Check out the full 10-track mixtape below:
Comments are closed.
