Nightmare on My Street

I noticed that Freddy Krueger is back in movie theaters, and from what I remember of the basic storyline, that shouldn’t be surprising. I think I’ve mentioned here before that I’ve never been a fan of scary movies for the unoriginal reason that they are scary. So I won’t be running to the theater for this one any faster than I ran there for the first ones.

However, when I saw the movie preview a couple of nights ago, I immediately began singing Will Smith’s “Nightmare on My Street.” Of course, Hillary had no idea what I was singing.

I was a rap music fan in its early days, at least as much a fan as a skinny white kid from Snow White, Arkansas, could be in the 1980s. Can’t you see a dorky kid like me bouncing around to some Fat Boys tracks? I mean, I couldn’t name a current hit song, but if Whodini’s “Freaks Come Out At Night” starts playing, I will embarrass my family name.

My favorite rap songs were “Basketball” (the original Kurtis Blow version, not the silly Bow Wow take-off), and “The Rapping Duke” by Shawn Brown. Two classics, in my humble opinion.

But the most fun cassette I owned in those days (boys and girls, cassette tapes are how we owned music before compact discs, which were how we owned music before iPods) was DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince’s “He’s the DJ, I’m the Rapper.” I guess lots of people today wouldn’t know that Will Smith was The Fresh Prince with a microphone before he was The Fresh Prince on a television screen.

I loved it.

Anyway, on that fun album was the classic “Parents Just Don’t Understand.” But the first track was Will Smith’s tribute to Freddy Krueger, and for Hillary if nothing else, here it is for you listening pleasure.