Team Teamwork

Now you can have both video game franchise Final Fantasy and hip-hop at the same time. Team Teamwork's new remix mix-tape Vinyl Fantasy VII is an artful mesh of Final Fantasy VII music and the vocal prominence of great MCs like MF Doom, Wale, Murs, and Jay-Z. Team Teamwork is comprised of one member, Tim Jacques, who has released two previous mix-tapes: The Ocarina of Rhyme and The Good-ass Remixes Vol. 1.

Even if you are not a fan of the game or the artists, a sense of nostalgia is inevitable as remixes of M.O.P.'s "Ante Up" and Outkast's "Royal Flush" bring you back to MTV in the late '90s and early 2000s. You might not be a fan of video games, but the Final Fantasy theme song, like the Mario theme and Zelda theme before it, instantly triggers memories of childhood as it has engraved itself into the encyclopedia of pop culture for an entire generation.

That’s not to say Jacques hasn’t delivered something fresh despite recycling music that’s over a decade old. The 8-bit music style used in Final Fantasy VII has been revitalized with a new layer of drum and bass beats. The rap vocals complete the package, which sounds a bit like Jacques's previous work and Swedish rapper Pato Pooh. Although the rap styles featured on the tape range from Brooklyn gangsta' rap to whatever Jay-Z is called now (legendary?), Vinyl Fantasy VII creates a cohesive smooth vibe you can bump to at any point in your life.