OCR01134 - Sonic Adventure 2 "Knuckles' Unknown from M.C."

[Shadow Theory]

I enjoyed it a lot, the lyrics in and of themselves are inherently corny I don't think any approach could entirely take that out. This is a lot smoother than the version in the game, and remixes usually give you a different flavor on a song rather than make you think "Wow this song is better than the one in the game" (unless it's a mix of a song from a game back in the cartridge days) but this one made me think that.

So good song, great work on otherwise inherently corny lyrics.

[DarknessTear]

Hate rap, but let's cut to the chase. This is very good sounding, especially for a remix involving vocals. Good job.

[Mysterious1ne]

I mainly have nothing to say... that's how good this remix was. Well, to me at least. I can't help but be a little jealous though...I wanna get in on the whole 'lyrics for remixes thing' . I'll warn everyone now though...I'm not you average run-of-the-mill rapper . I'll put it like this...mix Twista and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony together and you get me . but that's not the point...

[Nario]

Dude. This song is so awesome! I thought that the original music was awesome to begin with, but you made up more! Congrats! I just LOVED the chorus! It is well arranged. Instead of just having that part in the song like the original, you made it as your chorus! Rock-on yo! "Echidna! That's what I'm representing!" That's too cool. To be honest with you, I did find something wrong with it. You forget the lyrics that sounded cheesy. Maybe you did this on purpose. I just thought it would have been way better with those playing at the same time. That's just my opinion. Not many people like those lyrics of the song anyways. Anyways, uber-schwaness! 94.7 out of 100

- DJ15Nario

[José the Bronx Rican]

Note to self: that's enough lurking....

To answer Gecko, this is the José that hangs around at vgmusic.com (also a current moderator of the Visual Art board there), who really needs to get back to doing some MIDI's, but who's just starting out with something resembling a software studio, and is learning and trying to squeeze some quality music out of it. I'll get this out of the way, and offer a gigantic *salute* to Computer Music magazine, without which it might've taken me another several years and several thousand dollars.

Now, some more insight on this mix than I could spare in my email to pretzel...

The general idea was, in a tongue-in-cheek fashion, to come up with something sounding basically like the stuff many onliners absolutely hate about hip-hop on the radio - something funky, maybe bob your head a little to, but very cliched. The lyrics were re-written and recorded to that end, especially the vocal overdubbing, the way the chorus was laid out, and little touches such as the shouts to different "neighborhoods" (in-game zones), the "KN-UC-KL-ES" done in the style of Fabolous, and for Wu-Tang fans, a shout to "TIKAL" (the echidna ancestor's name, but also the phonetic nickname of Method Man [Tical]). The not-so-easy part was to make the track sound that way, but with recognizable elements of the original songs (the Rhodes, synth and sax); some parts were more successful than others.

What was most important to me, however, was that the quality of the mix was reasonably professional-sounding to enough of you listeners. I'm still starting out, and this mix took me over a year of on-and-off effort, as I spent more time gathering sounds, samples, Soundfonts and VSTi's and effects than I did actually making music. Considering this was 85% arranged and mixed in FL Studio (vocals included, which is not kosher in a system running Win98 on a 400Mhz Celeron), I'm gratified the response is encouraging. Please keep the mix comments coming, good or bad! I especially appreciate that some of you were feeling the "funk," because I like funk more than anything, and I was hoping to have some of you feel it.

Double_A_Ron's "minimalist" comments I found most interesting. I'm somewhat of a perfectionist sometimes, and even after I finish any project, be it music or a drawing or something else, I constantly have a feeling it needs a little something more, followed by another feeling of, "cut it out! That's quite enough; you don't want overkill." It's a struggle once in a while to find a perfect balance between "incomplete" and "too complete." I guess I might hang around the "Work In Progress" board periodically, although I have a hang-up about sharing unfinished work.

Shouts to everyone who replied, and who will reply.

I'm eager to start another one; I'm not doing rap mixes regularly (I don't even really write verses, although I've been a fan of hip-hop from the very beginning, and I like to think I'd be decent)... might be jazz, soul, might be techno. I even have a salsa/merengue idea in my head; I'm into everything. But I do know (hope, at least) it'll be funky...

Thanks for pseudo-listening....

BIG P.S.: For anyone interested, here is a link to the instrumental....

(EDIT: The Bronx Rican website is finally rolling as of July 30, 2005, and the following link is 100% working)

http://bronxrican.com/music/Sonic Adventure 2 - Knuckles' Unknown from MC - instrumental.mp3

and the complete lyrics:

KNUCKLES' UNKNOWN FROM M.C.

Yeah... y'all know me... the fighting freak Knuckles... still fearless... still got no weak spots...

back once again after the Master Emerald... fools still after my jewels... I stay on point e'ry day,

from da Island... gotta protect this place... do it for my race... I'm just gon' creep... stay knuckled

up in the deep cut... and whoever want it, bring it... I don't care, we can do this.

VERSE 1

I'm comin' through, rougher than the rest of them, brother, I'm the best of them, tougher than my breth-ren

N----- call me Knuckles, cause when I swing knees buckle, nuttin' but trouble when I'm flexin my muscles, yo

I'm hard as nails, it ain't hard to tell, that's word to Tails, break 'em all off, solid or frail

Unlike the rest, independent ever since my first breath, first to test, feel the right then my words left

It's the new porcupine on da block wit the buff chest, straight out da wilderness with the ruggedness

Knock knock it's Knux y'all, the blow thrower, independent flow-er, magic Emerald holder

Prone ta give you the cold shoulder, and my spikes go through boulders, that's why I always stay a loner

Born with no help, so I'm just out for delf, get it on by myself, adversaries get shelved

CHORUS

(Echidoena!) That's what I'm representin', never seen a mic hog spit like a menace

It's goin' down (Why?)... the Master Emerald's gone, somebody gon' get theirs quick my word's bond

(Echidoena!) Fightin' my foes all the time, but I gotta do it, they always stayin' outta line

Guaranteed I'ma find my gems and emeralds, they don't call me Knuckles for nuttin', I can't lose!

VERSE 2

Yeah, the KN-UC-KL-ES was... born to live my life on Angel Island cuz...

My duty's to protect the M.E. diamond, thugz... holdin' it down cause I'm searchin' for shinin'

But every time I'm lookin for sun I can't find it... Is this the way? Is this the path that I chose? Damn

Why am I livin' like my heart just froze, and, all that I see is a storm of gemstones, man

I like to dig holes searchin' for pure gold, large pots of treasure always make me feel better

If I need to fight anybody for whatever, I clench my fists tight, then we can go head-up

Though I don't wanna hurt none, I'll leave ya head shattered, been lonely all my life... doesn't matter

I'm here for da mission and whoever wanna bring it, n----- call me stubborn, but still I'ma live it

Do anything to collect the Master Emerald, climb mountains, glide thru valleys, run down every road

Wild and hungry, ain't nuttin funny, my philosophy's my knuckles, my feel kick like Chun-Li

CHORUS

VERSE 3

I was born like this, scared of no one, fear nuttin', straight thuggin', I'm out fo da ones and bling huntin'

Diamonds and gems, yo we can battle to da end, but beware of my namesake, the knuckles dat I send

'Cause when they penetrate, death is certain, it's pure hurtin', they're hard as steel, footwork is blazin', for you it's curtains

Never see me run from, never see me surrender, lay you out then fly away like there's no other contender

Render opponents tender, career ender, run up in one-round wonders, end up switching their gender

Put up your dukes, these mooks wanna blow up like nukes, nuthin' but flukes, I send all ya kooks cryin' to Ma Dukes

'Cause I'm Unknown from M.E., but not from G.E.N.E.... S.I.S. cause ain't no shame in my G.A.M.E.

Peace to 32X and the clique called Chaotix, peace from the Island and to Bronx Rican for da remix...

CHORUS

Don't let it hit ya, move... shouts to Green Hill, Labyrinth, Hill Top, Ice Cap, Marble Garden,

Speed Highway, Red Mountain, Lost World, Mission Street, Wild Canyon, Pumpkin Hill,

Death Chamber... shout out to the old earth... TIKAL!

[Genosync]

Just to emphasize what I said before, good stuff.

Submit something else. ^^; This is extremely high quality stuff, and to get praise from so many people like this right after the amazing Squaresoft Variation or whatever he called it, is something else. I listen to your piece more, however - you captured the flow of the original perfectly, what the song was meant to embody - improved upon it, made it better, which is the job of the remixer. Excellent work, recieves "Always In Playlist" status from me. ^^;

[po!]

gotta give Jose mad props on this...

the instrumentation and production is all very smooth. the whole vibe i get reminds me of the feel of the game (even tho i only played it twice at best buy)

vocal production is great, mixes will with the rest of the track... smoooth. the rapping is well done too.. good clarity. and i like your voice

gooood stuff

[Christopher Blue]

José the Bronx Rican, are you the same as Jose Acosta?

[kablammyman]

EXCELLENT MIX! Wow, this is the only rap re-mix i have heard (i would LOVE more) and this does not fail! This dude can flow and the beat is tite! I hope he continues to do more remixes like this!

[José the Bronx Rican]

José the Bronx Rican, are you the same as Jose Acosta?

Not even close.

If there weren't other Joses contributing Mixes, I would've just called myself José here and leave it at that. I'm not into nicknames, so my screennames are generally pretty boring. "Bronx Rican" is acceptable to me because it's a fair description, it's not very common, and it makes a good sort-of brand name: I registered it as a ".com" domain for my homepage, which still shows nearly nothing (this summer, God willing). At any rate, my first name carries an accent mark (props to this forum for allowing it in screennames), so I suppose that's one way of telling us apart. And I've been contributing MIDIs to vgmusic.com for years (SOR, Sonic, others).

[Falcovsleon20]

Jose the Bronx Rican just took my favorite theme songs from both SA1 and SA2 and really remixed them in an enjoyable flava. (I can't believe I just said that word.) Anyways, moving on, I don't listen to much rap and it was a bit hard to get the jist of the lyrics so I hope someone gets those up and running soon. Overall 9/10.

[José the Bronx Rican]

...it was a bit hard to get the jist of the lyrics so I hope someone gets those up and running soon.

Page 2.

[DarkMatter_the_Enchida]

I love the music in Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2, but Knuckles' theme was something I never really cared for. It might be because I hate rap, but this remix is a very unique and talented way of taking that old, cheesy "unlike Sonic I don't chuckle" theme and making pretty enjoyable and definatly worth a download.

And this is coming from someone who doesn't like rap.

[tfate]

i'm pretty late in this reply thread but i want to say this mix really shocked me. i love the lyrics in this mix that you re-wrote, though i didnt bother to also listen to the vocal that much. its understandable this must have been really time consuming. its also understandable about your "general idea" of how many onliners listen to the fake rap/hip-hop tracks on the net. i liked what you did here with the knuckles themes. very casual and clean. great work. ()

[Julio Jose]

Ok i dont like rap at all. Sorry if it sounds concieted, but I just dont. Not thug rap at least. But this, this my friends is awesome. Such a cool funk-i-fied song. Holy crap, its just really something new. The techno fiend that i am, i need to listen to other stuff sometimes, and holy crap this is the other stuff.

_______________

that piano sample, "bright piano" on reson, and that small synth is awesome. sounds like a sample, may be mistaken. The trumpet is also well timed, and used in the right amounts. awesome track.

[fisherman]

God... simply amazing. Very professional-sounding indeed! I felt the funk.

If this had been an original, some guy rapping about the ghetto or guns or bitches or blunts or money... I would have despised it. But he's rapping about Knuckles Just the fact that this was done excites me. There was nothing fake-sounding about this at all... completely true-to-form and not a hint of campiness.

[Julio Jose]

i truly hate this. Everynight around midnight, i find myself on OCR listening to this track again. It is really annoying. this track is so masterful. I am a techno feind and im a closed minded bum. Im not open to new ideas. Some hip hop is good, yes but a very minute percent. This song wrenched into my brain. Such a good song, so many catchy parts to it. The trumpet is amazing. Sigh... this song is amazing. The mcing isnt bad at all. Like someone said above, if the lyrics were about bling bling, drugs bitches and cash, i would have trashed it. The 'subtle' if you may, lyrics perfectly fit this songs smooth and funkafied approach. Loving this song, auto mix cd.

^ as you can see above this song is so good, it makes my thoughts and ideas scattered.... BLAST IT

[fetusboy]

Being a fan of rap music myself I've found it kinda hard to enjoy this. The style and pace of the music is dated and the attempts at freestyle inbetween verses make me shudder a little at the kornyness.

Well he's keepin' it true to the original mix. There's nothing wrong with that. Although he could have used some vocabulary above the grade 9 level to give the lyrics less cheese.

I hate to be grumpy, and I'm not saying the mix is particularly bad, but it's hard to see what everyone loves about it so much. The vocals are well done and I could imagine this guy up there rapping away with the professionals, but these are some hard lyrics to take seriously. The chanting of the zone names at the end is really pushing the cheese boundaries to the limit.

I strongly agree. "Tikal, ha hah ha! Yeah" That was uncalled for. It annoyed me like the plague. Once you get to the end of the last hook chant, shut the song off right away. On top of that, fade out would be the worst approach to end the song.

The reason everyone loves it is because it's Knuckles. The roughness of rap suites his character as a fighter and protector of Angel Island. On top of that, it's not too hardcore gangsta, nor is it so kiddy-ish. It's the average rap song that's good enough for the entire family.

I had been expecting more of a modern rap approach to the song, with an Outkast-esque beat maybe, and some more aggresive sounding vocals, so this may have come across differently to my expectations after the download was done(Ruddy 56k). A nice attempt, and a good idea, but I really can't see what you all see in it.

G-funk will never be outdated. Dr. Dre thought G-funk gangsta rap was dead in 95. Well guess what happened? Now it's glorified. The bassline is definately modern.

I disagree with you regarding the vocal opinion, Sambo. Aggressive sounding vocals would have kept this song from hittin' OCR. Not everyone loves that kind of crap. Let the man tone it down if he wants.

[Cherrie]

Holy sweet merciful crap this is awesome.

First and foremost, you made Wild Canyon the chorus. Wild Canyon is my favorite Knuckles tune EVER. That makes me so happy.

In fact this entire song makes me giggle with glee. The reworked lyrics, the chorus (^_____^), the shout outs to random Sonic stages, and all of the little references and details make this a real treat to listen to. Creative, groovy, fun, and all around top tier.

[Stratagemini]

Let this be known first: I generally hate rap music.

That said, this remix is different. I actually enjoyed this rap remix. Now admittedly the only other Rap Remix I've ever heard is the Asterix remix that was put on OC Relatively recently, but I must say, this is the best rap remix I've ever heard.

The lyrics were original and amusig, and the music was entertaining independent of the lyrics. overal, out of 25, I'd give this a 19.

[Vash the Stampede]

You know, I always HATED the lyrical songs on the Dreamcast Sonic Adventure games, but this is really cool! Great work man, you made something beautiful out of something originally horrid!!

[Lomion]

I remember when I initially listened to this mix I was kinda disappointed that it didn't sound very much like "Unknown from M.E.". Probably someone wants to shoot me now or something but I basically liked the whole pack of the "Sonic Adventure" character themes. Must be some sort of strange addiction for everything that combines video games and music lyrics. Guess I'm still a child there. Anyway, my disappointment soon faded into pure amazement. I just dig this. This is the sort of songs which will really get me into trouble some day. There are days where I barely can resist to start freestyling at my co-workers in the stairwell about "what I'm representing". So the question is, what do we represent? I'd say we represent a lifestyle in which the dream of saving "the flower from evil deterioration" holds a strong position. Um.. to explain that: We're gamers and we like thinking about fighting evil and saving the world.

Enough rant already. I don't know shit about hip hop. But José really gots the flow. Great lyrics - I'd say the cornyness is almost obligatoric in a song about Knuckles. I mean, hello? We're talking about a fighting hog here! He's unlikely to be dealing with social problems in modern society. OK, of course there could be less corny vocals. I'd say they're already cognizable less corny than the originals. But if you want to - in a way - stay true to something like the SA themes, you'll have to come up with something really ingenious if you want to get 'intelligent' lyrics.

Great stuff. Hope to hear more from you soon man!

What happened to DJ Crono anyway?

[Biggestsonicfan]

This is good. I will give it that, but not much more. The beats were good. The ending was quite weak, and I found a few flaws:

1. "Gotta protect this place; Do it for my race." According to SA1, Knuckles lives alone on the Floating Island. Also, according to SA1, all others of his race were wiped out by Chaos. So, he really is doing it for himself, isn't he?

2. "It's the new porcupine on the block;" AHEM! It says EVERYWHERE in the manual and character select that Knuckles is an ECHIDNA!!!

3. "Magic emerald holder." It woulda worked if he said "Master emerald holder." Since all of the chaos emeralds are also magical. And don't give me this "Knuckles has the chaos emeralds in Triple Trouble/S3/S&K." Because this is supposed to be a mixture of SA1&2, no other games.

4. "All that I see is a storm of gem stones." Jeeze, the artist of this wants to give off the image that Knuckles is greedy for the emeralds. In fact, in both SA1 and SA2, he could care less about the chaos emeralds. He makes him sound like a male version of Rouge!

5. "If I need to fight; anybody for whatever; I clench my fists tight; and we can go hedda(sic)"

Hmmm, Knuckles really doesn't seem to fight Dr. Eggman whenever Eggman tells him Sonic did something, however, I can see where this can be argued.

6."My philiosophy is my knuckles; my feet kick like Chun Lee."

Wow! Where in the world did that come from? Knuckles may kick, but I would say his power is in his upper body. And I tend to see that most of these rhymes are just thrown in there because it sorta makes sence. I am hearing him go from topic to topic very rapidly, and it hurts to follow.

6. "[something] but not from G E N N E; S I S [uh...not sure about this next part] cause there ain't no shavin my G A M E; Peace to the 32X and the click called Chaotix;"

OKAY!?!?! What is this crap? How many games and credits are we mentioning here?

It is strongly encouraged that you limit material being ReMixed to a single game for each submission. Your ReMix will only be titled or "assigned" a single game in our database, regardless of how many games' music it contains, though we can mention in our write-up what other titles were covered. However, it is strongly advised due to the nature of the way mixes are evaluated that you maintain focus and continuity in your arrangement, which is much easier when you are dealing with songs from a single game's soundtrack. Please keep this in mind - part of the focus of this site is to highlight and pay homage to the work of game composers, not cram as many of their songs as possible into a five-minute arrangement.

Yeesh.

Overall, a 3/5. At least it is the BEST rap I have ever heard, and was a plesent melody to listen to, regardless if you concentrated on what he was saying or not. The transitions between descriptions was smooth, but irratic.

This is my oppinion, have a super SONIC day,

Biggestsonicfan

[Mouseboy]

This is good. I will give it that, but not much more. The beats were good. The ending was quite weak, and I found a few flaws:

1. "Gotta protect this place; Do it for my race." According to SA1, Knuckles lives alone on the Floating Island. Also, according to SA1, all others of his race were wiped out by Chaos. So, he really is doing it for himself, isn't he?

2. "It's the new porcupine on the block;" AHEM! It says EVERYWHERE in the manual and character select that Knuckles is an ECHIDNA!!!

3. "Magic emerald holder." It woulda worked if he said "Master emerald holder." Since all of the chaos emeralds are also magical. And don't give me this "Knuckles has the chaos emeralds in Triple Trouble/S3/S&K." Because this is supposed to be a mixture of SA1&2, no other games.

4. "All that I see is a storm of gem stones." Jeeze, the artist of this wants to give off the image that Knuckles is greedy for the emeralds. In fact, in both SA1 and SA2, he could care less about the chaos emeralds. He makes him sound like a male version of Rouge!

5. "If I need to fight; anybody for whatever; I clench my fists tight; and we can go hedda(sic)"

Hmmm, Knuckles really doesn't seem to fight Dr. Eggman whenever Eggman tells him Sonic did something, however, I can see where this can be argued.

6."My philiosophy is my knuckles; my feet kick like Chun Lee."

Wow! Where in the world did that come from? Knuckles may kick, but I would say his power is in his upper body. And I tend to see that most of these rhymes are just thrown in there because it sorta makes sence. I am hearing him go from topic to topic very rapidly, and it hurts to follow.

6. "[something] but not from G E N N E; S I S [uh...not sure about this next part] cause there ain't no shavin my G A M E; Peace to the 32X and the click called Chaotix;"

OKAY!?!?! What is this crap? How many games and credits are we mentioning here?

It is strongly encouraged that you limit material being ReMixed to a single game for each submission. Your ReMix will only be titled or "assigned" a single game in our database, regardless of how many games' music it contains, though we can mention in our write-up what other titles were covered. However, it is strongly advised due to the nature of the way mixes are evaluated that you maintain focus and continuity in your arrangement, which is much easier when you are dealing with songs from a single game's soundtrack. Please keep this in mind - part of the focus of this site is to highlight and pay homage to the work of game composers, not cram as many of their songs as possible into a five-minute arrangement.

Yeesh.

Overall, a 3/5. At least it is the BEST rap I have ever heard, and was a plesent melody to listen to, regardless if you concentrated on what he was saying or not. The transitions between descriptions was smooth, but irratic.

This is my oppinion, have a super SONIC day,

Biggestsonicfan

Have you ever even heard the originals? Number 1 is in SA2's Wild Canyon. 2 is from his SA1 theme, as is 3. 4, SA2. 5 is an altered version of part of the SA2 one. 6, too; the original also has him mentioning his feet. Your second 6 (I assume you meant 7) is original, and if you dislike it okay. Me, I enjoyed this song as a Knuckles fan, even though rap is one of my least favorite music genres.

[Blue_Drac]

Other than the part about "Feet kicking like Chun Lee" this rap flows from point to point with no break. I like it, and is easily the best game mix Rap that I've heard.