Super Nintendo Sega Genesis is the third rap meets video games album from one-man team Tim Jacques. As the title points out, this time the video games are from the 16-bit era.

For whatever reason Ludacris seems to be the darling child of the mashup community. Having appeared on multiple Girl Talk, Best of Bootie and Team Teamwork albums, there seems to be no shortage of sampling this multi-Grammy award winning rapper and actor. Personally I don't care for him and I thought that the nasty business with Justin Bieber would of been the end of his mashup run, but alas it is not so and he is the album's opener. Thankfully Guile's theme from Street Fighter II goes with everything, the song is perhaps also a nod to Ludaris's new found marketability as a family man.

Even with the audio limitations of the Super Nintendo and Genesis/Mega Drive composers were able to create some memorable tunes which still hold-up today. You can definitely tell that tracks such as "Touch The Sky" come from an old video game but that's what adds to the albums charms. "Shutterbugg", "I Gotcha" and "Blue Flowers" are three of the more convincing mixes and dare I say that the mixes on "One Night Stand" and "Bright As The Stars" work better than the originals.

I am only familiar with the Street Fighter II music on "Roll Out" and "Blue Flowers" is the only rap track that I am attached to, so this gives me an objective and non-nostalgia destroying point-of-view, so I can say without bias that Team Teamwork has done another great job with the unlikely and successful pairing of video game music with rap (the reverse, rap in video games is more common and accepted). I doubt Super Nintendo Sega Genesis is enough to convince the hardcore on either side, but surely the outstanding "Bright As The Stars" makes some progress by chipping away at those boundaries.
You can pay what you want for the album here.

7.8 /10

Track Listing

1. Ludacris - Roll Out (Street Fighter 2)

2. Biggie, Craig Mack & Others - Flava In Ya Ear
(Donkey Kong Country 2)

3. Childish Gambino - Let Me Dope You (Streets of Rage)

4. Big Boi & Cutty - Shutterbugg (Super Metroid)

5. Lupe Fiasco - I Gotcha (Sonic 3)

6. Dr. Octagon - Blue Flowers (Yoshi's Island)

7. Ghostface Killah - The Champ (Ristar)

8. Gang Starr - The Squeeze (Super Mario RPG)

9. Kanye West - Touch The Sky (Mortal Kombat)

10. Bonecrusher, Killer Mike & T.I. - Never Scared
(A Link To The Past)

11. E-40 & Busta Rhymes - One Night Stand
(X-Men 2: Clone Wars)

12. Talib Kweli & Mos Def - Bright As The Stars (Earthbound)