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The spooky horror film and music video tie-ins of the 80s and 90s

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4 (1988): “Are You Ready for Freddy?” by the Fat Boys / “A Nightmare on My Street” by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince

And now we come to the great Freddy rap war of 1988. One of the '80s acts of the '80s was the Fat Boys, a trio of happy, overweight gentlemen who were in touch with Chubby Checker and the Beach Boys and also starred in their own screwball comedy entitled Disturbances. It's not that bad! Anyway, they had their own music video for it Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Masterin which they were challenged to spend a night in a haunted house, only to be chased away by a rapping Freddy. I call bullshit because the Fat Boys were obviously aware of all this.

They weren't the only crazy rap team that wanted a spot on the soundtrack. DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince put together a single called “A Nightmare on My Street” hoping to make it, but no chance. Will Smith reportedly hugged his uncle and tearfully asked him why New Line Cinema didn't want him. It was released anyway, albeit with a disclaimer indicating that it had no connection to the films. A music video was actually produced, but lawyers prevented it from being broadcast. They suggested a lawsuit and told Smith to keep Freddy's name out of his damn mouth.

Beetlejuice (1988): “Day-O” by Harry Belafonte

Harry Belafonte had been singing this song for 30 years, but the séance scene Beetlejuice was such a big deal at the time and gave the song such a boost that he ended up making a video for it. This image is 90 percent film footage, but shows some alternate and longer shots from the sequence that didn't make it into the final film.

Outside of the endless montage, we occasionally see shots of Harry Belafonte casually walking alone through the city streets while singing this song. Normally I would attribute this to them filming Belafonte going about his everyday activities, but he ends up calling a cab and is surprised to see a horrible overlay of Beetlejuice as the driver. Between this and LubricatedIn 1988 it was probably all about smartass, unhygienic ghosts who drove taxis.

Ghostbusters II (1989): “On Our Own” by Bobby Brown

It took a while, but we finally found an entry about a rap song that explains the film's plot in the end credits. classic. Bobby Brown had big shoes to fill by creating something new Ghostbusters Topic and… he's fine. It reaches its climax in the opening line, which is why he repeats it at various points throughout the song.

Instead of being a charming creep like Ray Parker Jr., Bobby Brown spends the video commandeering video screens, bus posters, and newspaper front pages all over New York City. Just snippets of him, his backup singers, and stuff from the movie itself. Like the first movie's video, random celebrities show up, but this time there's no hook for them to scream at the camera. Instead, they all look confused about Brown's killing spree. Appearances include Christopher Reeve, the Ramones, Rick Moranis and a giant elephant in the room.

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