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Katamari Rap Mashups Take Remixing To Insane Conclusion

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Rap nerds and video game nerds have a lot in common. So whenever the two overlap thanks to the magic of the internet, things get pretty weird pretty quickly.

In the latest and possibly greatest example of this digital melting pot, electronic musician Timothy Jacques, AKA Team Teamwork, just released an album called Katamar Da-Emcee (get it?) that lays verses from famous rappers like DMX, Kanye West, and Outkast over songs from Katamari Damacy, the classic PS2-era puzzle game about rolling things into a giant ball.

Katamari was a whacky series, and the music that went into it is no different. So some of these combinations sound a bit...odd. Here's the original version "Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See" by Busta Rhymes, for instance:

And here's the Katamari-fueled remix:

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...alternatively, here's my favorite one. This is DMX being his ferocious self in "X Gon' Give It To Ya.'"

I'm pretty sure that saying hello to mister sunshine was the farther thing from DMX's mind when he belted out a challenge to "fight these tears." But, well, here we are:

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It's an unorthodox combination. And I'm honestly not sure if the clash of noise that comes from mashing Kanye West together with the Katarami Damacy theme song actually sounds good, or if it's just a silly gimmick. It sounds like pure chaos in either case.

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But that's sort of what I love about this: it embodies the weird, frenetic fun of remix culture. I mean, Katamari Damacy is a game where you play as a little green man who rolls a ball around to accumulate ever larger piles of stuff. Ultimately, this refuse is turned into a celestial body. One person's trash becomes a part of another's solar system; everything that's old is new again. See what I'm getting at?

Ok, I'll stop. But give Katamari Da-Emcee a listen. You can download the whole thing or just stream it on Team Teamwork's website.

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To contact the author of this post, write to yannick.lejacq@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter at @YannickLeJacq.