About
Slam Remix (alternely known as X Vs. Quad City DJ’s) is a series of remix songs based on the theme song from the 1996 family film Space Jam[1], originally composed by the Quad City DJ’s[2]. Slam remixes are commonly accompanied by a headshot of Charles Barkley superimposed over the head of a certain character related to the song.
Origin
The song “Space Jam” was performed by the Quad City DJ’s, a musical group consisting of C.C. Lemonhead (Nathaniel Orange) and Jay Ski (Johnny McGowan), featuring vocal contributions from the singer JeLana LaFleur. The song was released in 1996 with the soundtrack for the eponymous film starring NBA athlete Michael Jordan and the cast of Looney Tunes.
Before the arrival of YouTube, Quad City DJ’s “Space Jam” was used in tribute sites to wrestler Randy Savage on YTMND. Originally mixed with the chiptune song “Funky Stars”[12], the song was initially featured in an instance titled Savageslam, created on April 13th, 2005.[7]
Spread
Over the course of 2005 and the years afterwards, many YTMND users sampled the Savageslam remix in creating more tributes to Randy Savage, including a NES 8-bit remix[8] and a megamix[9] made with 8 different remixes. Other remixes of the original “Space Jam” theme song on YTMND featured various video game soundtracks such as King of Fighters[10] and popular songs by The Beatles[11]. In April 2007, YTMND user barf uploaded a mashup version of the Savageslam remix featuring audio clips of Bill Nye, Snoop Dog, and What is Love[13] by YTMND user barf. Known as “Snoop Nye the Slam Guy”[14], this instance spawned over 70 derivatives.[15]
Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden
The “Space Jam” theme began appearing on YouTube when it was placed over the teaser trailer for the freeware role-playing video game Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden[3] developed by Tales of Game’s Studios.[4] This mashup was uploaded to YouTube on January 21st, 2007 by YouTuber Druler.[5]
Two years later on May 6th, 2009, YouTuber claude75[6] uploaded the first musical remix of Shut Up and Jam’s boss battle music with the “Space Jam” theme. Afterwards, Charles Barkley became associated with other remixes, usually featuring a photoshopped photo of Charles Barkley on the face of a character related to the song. The videos, as well as MP3 audio remixes, have been shared on gaming sites like Giant Bomb[16], IGN[19] and OGPlanet[20] as well as anime forum The Colorless[17] and Tumblr blogs.[18][22] There are also nearly 40 remixes hosted on SoundCloud.[21]
Notable Examples
Photoshops
Search Interest
Search interest for “Slam Remix” started in December 2005, 8 months after the fist YTMND Slam Remix got created.
External References
[2] Wikipedia – Quad City DJ’s
[3] Wikipedia – Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden
[4] Tales of Game’s Studios – Main Website
[5] YouTube – Druler Channel
[6] Youtube – cluade75’s Channel
[7]YTMND – Savageslam
[8]YTMND – Superslam8mixes
[10]YTMND – Superkofslam
[13]YTMND – What is Snoop Nye the Slam Guy?
[14]YTMND Wiki – Snoop Nye the Slam Guy
[15]YTMND – Search results for Snoop Nye
[16] Giant Bomb – The Top Five Space Jam Remixes
[17] The Colorless – Slam Jam remixes thread
[18] Tumblr – Posts tagged “Slam Jam”
[19]IGN Forum – The Slam Jam Thread
[20] OGPlanet – Slam Jam remixes
[21] SoundCloud – Search results for “Vs. Quad City”
[22] Tumblr – Posts tagged “Quad City Djs”