#Kenji Furutani

[7grandmel]

Todays rip: 28/01/2024

Me and the rest area of the melee here, singing, "Where'd you go​?​"

Season 7 Featured on: SiIvaGunner's Highest Quality Rips: Volume Ruby

Ripped by Kenji Furutani

Y'know, for having followed the channel since way back in 2016, it's kind of funny it took until just last year for me to see the term "rip-hop" be used, in the comments to Me and the rest area of the melee here, singing, "Where'd you go​?​". I've covered plenty of rap mashups here on the blog before, be it kirby will never have drip *spits out cereal*, Top of the Looping Steps, or Noonsummer Madness, and while the directions for all these mashups are obviously different based on the tracks used, the latter in particular - Noonsummer Madness - has really stuck with me since covering it. And I think it is specifically because it uses its two sources to specifically embrace a chill, laid-back vibe, one similar to rips like Sidelined Symphony and Yoshi's Cookie World. If we're to be technical, all rap mashups count as rip-hop, but its these emotional rips in particular that truly begin to define the term for me.

A lot of the appeal with video game music, beyond its sheer quality of composition, arrangement, and so forth, is the emotional, nostalgic ties that you form with it through the act of playing. Listening to music through albums necessitates that you form your own associations with them - either that you know about the artists behind them and what they represent, or that you're able to associate the music with important parts of your life, or simply that the music brings you back to younger times upon relistening years later. A big reason why, growing up, I always found VGM so much more appealing to listen to than what the radio suggested was because those connections were already made from playing the game - I'd associate boss music with the emotions I felt upon fighting said boss, RPG town music with the state of my party and game experience up to that point, menu music associated with just how many hours I'd sunk into the game in question - this last reason in particular is precisely why rips like Neon Wi-Fi click so well for me. Nostalgia's a very powerful tool to bring out emotions in the listener, yet the one it seems to be best at leveraging is that of sheer sentimentality: the smiles and tears we had along the way.

And that, to me, is the purest essence of Rip-Hop, and what rips like Me and the rest area of the melee here, singing, "Where'd you go​?​" truly mean to me. Relistening to video game music I'm already well acquainted with doesn't always strike me as "nostalgic" when I've been hearing it so frequently in videos or just through replaying the games, yet...there's a sort of further emotional impact that gets extracted from them through little more than the power of a good rap song mashed up with it. Where'd You Go by Fort Minor of Linkin Park fame is, like with Noonsummer Madness, not a song I hold much of any memories with - yet the simple addition of its vocals and thumping percussion contrast so beautifully with Melee's All-Star Rest Area theme.

There's a beauty to just how simple the Rest Area theme is, being driven by a sequence of only 20 notes played in bunches of three, yet coated in a heavenly backing of pianos and string. That pairing of simplicity in melody yet beautiful instrumentation sort of embodies why "rip-hop" as a rip category is able to work so beautifully - many times, you don't need to jump through the most complex hoops to bring out the most out of two songs through mashing them up. Althesame, the amount of small tweaks done to both songs to make Me and the rest area of the melee here, singing, "Where'd you go​?​" work so seamlessly are still both noticeable and very much appreciated. I haven't been aware of Kenji Furutani's contributions to the channel until just recently, but with rips like this and more under their belt, its clear to me just how much of an understanding he has of the true potential video game music holds.

[efemeraliberdade]

(Kenji Furutani)

[elliottwebsite]

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[7grandmel]

Todays Raft: 11:20 - 01/04/2024

Now look at this raft, that I just rode.

Season 7 Ridden on: SiIvaGunner's Highest Quality Rips: Volume Ruby

Raft by Kenji Furutani

Fun fact, there's apparently an inverse of this rip - as in, Raft Ride being played with We Are Number One's stems and instruments, but only on Vvvvvavvvvvvr. Which means I'll never find it again. Damn.

Anyway, good tune! I love We Are Number One, it'll likely never get old, and it fits Raft Ride's whimsy. Very neat.