Walkmen: Fortruss vs. John Williams: Imperial March

Well. It had to happen sooner or later right? We had to get to John Williams. You didn't know when it was coming, but here it is. Now I'm not gonna fuck with you and talk about the Beastie Boys using a teeny tiny sample from the Jaws score in Eggman (around 0:52), even though that may have been a defining song for me during a time when my mind was as young and thirsty as a dehydrated sea sponge. Nah, instead we're doing this shit whole hog! Imperial March, y'all. This oft sampled track from 1980's Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back has spawned some pretty terrible dance remixes, cheesy-screamy-angry-beefy guys yelling about killing other people, but oh no no...that's not for your pretty little ears.

He told me he was moving

For you dear readers, I've done the dirty work. I've sifted through all the trash. I got down into the compactor room of rap music, wrestled a motherfucking diagona without any of my Wookiee friends around (they were all moving today, or so they said), and I fucking won. Because the track Fortruss by Walkmen is the best damn hip hop track you'll hear all month.

This is an oldie but goodie released back in 1998. The flow is super tight and there are samples from ESB all over the place. It's also not just a straight rip like some other tracks that sample the Imperial March. Tempo gets mixed up here and there to interesting effect. Around 1:00 Vader even gets to finish the verse! There are blasters, light sabers, everything you love. Check out some of these lyrics:

Like Anakin Skywalker to Darth Vader

In any confrontation I pull out my light saber

These galactic crusaders facin' a fleet of invaders

My thoughts navigate, as my spirit illustrates

So my foes meet they fate

Then I annihilate, cloak my ship to investigate

Jump into hyperspace, headin' back towards Echo Base

And check out the song below:

There you have it. Go buy Fortruss / The Countdown Theory over at Amazon and get two great tracks complete with their instrumental versions and radio edits (not that you really want the radio edits). Also, may as well grab Blu-Rays of Episodes IV-VI so you can see Han frozen in carbonite in all his HD glory.