Donkey Kong 64 composer who went uncredited in the Super Mario Bros Movie was “so pissed” that he still hasn’t watched the film, even if he has “seen that bit” with the DK Rap

Composer Grant Kirkhope is an icon for a particular generation of Nintendo enthusiasts, having crafted memorable musical pieces for Rare masterpieces like GoldenEye 007, Banjo-Kazooie, and Donkey Kong 64. In 2023, The Super Mario Bros. Movie somewhat notoriously featured the opening DK Rap from the latter title while omitting Kirkhope from the acknowledgments, and it appears he remains irritated enough about the entire situation that he has yet to view the film.

Kirkhope publicly addressed his omission from the credits on Twitter at the time, and since he had recently collaborated with Nintendo on the arrangements for the Banjo-Kazooie score included in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, he had a contact within the company. He reached out to find out the specifics regarding the credits.

“So I received a reply from, I suppose, one of the legal representatives,” Kirkhope remarked to industry newsletter Push to Talk. “And it basically stated, they formulated this three-rule guideline, which was that they decided any music owned by Nintendo featured in the film would not credit the composer except for Koji Kondo. Then they concluded that anything with vocals would attribute the composer. So the Donkey Kong rap is acknowledged. However, they also determined if Nintendo held the rights to it, they wouldn’t credit the composer.”

He refers to it as “this arbitrary situation,” and the cinema would be “completely vacant” by the moment his potential credit might emerge. “It would just be me, my wife, and my children sitting there going, look what I accomplished. You know, for a brief moment, a piece of text, what’s the significance?”

That cinematic experience remains a purely hypothetical one, however. “I can tell you this, I still haven’t seen the film yet. I’ve caught that part with the rap. But I was so upset I haven’t viewed it.”

The DK Rap was once the target of numerous jokes, but over time it has garnered a significant number of ironic admirers – at this point, the affection may be nearing sincerity. It even resurfaced in Donkey Kong Bananza earlier this year but, yet again, Kirkhope was unaware it was taking place.

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