The Lost Art of Movie End-Credit Rap Song – From Ghostbusters to Men in Black

There was nothing like the summer movie season in the '80s and '90s. It was THE big deal, everyone knew about the summer blockbusters, everyone I knew at least. That was the pop culture of the day.

Few things represent that weird, magical time like the golden age of movie soundtracks. From Back to the Future and Batman '89, to Space Jam and Titanic, a good soundtrack can make an OK movie great, looking at you, Judgment Night. And a great soundtrack made a good movie endure for generations. How many kids today watch Ghostbusters for the first time after hearing the song every October?

In the 2020s, it's not quite as exciting. The movie and music businesses have changed. Teaming up an album and a film doesn't have the same promotional power as in the olden days. The same way that promoting a movie with special cups and Happy Meal toys is no longer a thing.

READ MORE: From PacMant To Batman: The Lost Art Of Collecting Vintage Movie Cups

Sure, we still get great soundtracks from movies and TV shows. Like the Black Panther soundtrack, or from this year, Sinners, a fantastic album. The score is great too.

But today, they are mostly just official playlists. Not quite as cool as getting that CD a few weeks before the movie opened and trying to decode the plot based on the movie stills in the album insert. 

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When Movie Soundtracks Were Cultural Events

One of the biggest things that I miss from the golden age of movie soundtracks is the rap song that tells the plot of the movie. Usually, a song by a hot rapper of the day would be played over the end credits of the movie, and if they got lucky, it would become a hit single in its own right.

The Greatest End-Credit Rap Songs of All Time

Becoming a hit is not what happened in 1987 for the film Dragnet or the rap song from the soundtrack performed by the movie's stars, Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks. The movie was an attempted comedy, kinda parody, of the old Dragnet TV show, and over the end credits we got to have MCs Hanks and Danny A tell us the plot of the movie we just watched.

1989 was one of the biggest movie summers ever. We had Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Lethal Weapon 2, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, and Dead Poets Society. We also got to hang out with our favorite busters of ghosts in Ghostbusters II! That movie gave us this jam from Run DMC, a rap cover of the original Ghostbusters song.

1989 was also the summer of Batdance, the classic Prince mashup of song leftovers and clips from the Batman '89 movie.

READ MORE: Why Kevin Conroy Was the Best Batman

The next year was the summer of TMNT. 1990's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie started the turtles' pop culture invasion. Soon, moms all over America were wondering what "Cowabunga, Dude" meant. The movie also gave us this song from Partners In Kryme. Again, over the credits as a sort of review of what just happened in the theater.

1991 gave us this attempt to jump on the trend train. The Addams Family is the rare TV-to-movie remake that works. It captures and builds on the 1960s television oddity to make a fun movie. However, soundtrack-wise, it doesn't reach the same heights, as this MC Hammer song shows us.

Not to be outdone, the sequel, Addams Family Values, tried to recapture what they didn't capture in the first film with this Tag Team song.

Will Smith: The Undisputed King of the Movie Rap Song

But then, in 1997, the greatest end credit song creator of all time came on the scene. Well, I guess Will Smith was already on the scene. He'd been rapping and acting for a while at this point. But when he not only starred in the massive summer hit Men in Black, he also killed it on the soundtrack with this hit song, we knew he was the greatest of all time.

After reaching the pinnacle of soundtrack songs with the MiB track, was there no way for Will to do it again? Right?

Well, that's right. In 1999 came the not fun or funny Wild Wild West. Another movie based on a TV show that didn't quite work. It's almost like most old TV is garbage and was only popular because it was all that was on.

But the shiny part of this cinematic dropping was the title song from the soundtrack. Smith was again starring in the movie and doing the recap end credits song. This one is a kick-ass track with a wild Stevie Wonder groove and a retro Kool Mo Dee influence. This song is still good today, far outlasting the movie it came from.