The newly released trailer for the Street Fighter movie offers a better look at the characters and story, while soundtracking the sneak peak with a rare 2Pac recording.
First, the trailer gives the impression that Paramount didn’t shy away from the bizarre, high-octane energy of the original Capcom game. Instead, it gave it space, and it worked beautifully. The audience loved the original Street Fighter game not because it had realistic physics, but because it made the impossible emotionally convincing. And a new adaptation, directed by Kitao Sakurai, seems to follow that pattern.
The music brings another impossible element into the frame. The song used is Tupac’s track “Ambitionz Az a Fighta”. In 1995, 2Pac recorded this alternate version of “Ambitionz Az a Ridah”, with lyrics changed to fit a fighting theme for Mike Tyson’s ring entrance. It was later released as “Ambitionz Az a Fighta” on the posthumous compilation Immortal in 2009.
However, there is a difference. Even on “Ambitionz Az a Fighta”, Tupac keeps saying “rider” in the chorus. He wrote new lyrics for Mike Tyson, but he didn’t change this line. In the trailer, however, you can clearly hear the word “fighter”, and that raises some questions.
Is it 50 Cent’s vocals layered over 2Pac’s beat? Is it a newly assembled mix using 2Pac’s unreleased material? Not that long ago, on NBC’s Today, Fifty said that Eminem and he had been working on music for Street Fighter and that 2Pac’s estate gave them access to the late rapper’s unreleased material:
I have some music that I’m working on. I did something currently, me, Eminem, and Tupac. Actually, it was for the theme for the Street Fighter movie. We worked on it and got it right.
It certainly looks like the song Fifty was talking about. That does not necessarily mean we will hear Eminem rap on it. If Eminem had a vocal verse there, Paramount might have saved that reveal – or used it as the trailer’s biggest hook. For now, there is no confirmation either way.
For now, it looks more likely that Marshall’s role may be behind the scenes rather than on the mic. This decision is completely understandable. That is not exactly the kind of controversy Eminem usually is after. But many of his fans will still be disappointed as another opportunity to hear new Eminem vocals may pass by. However, nothing is set in stone yet. The movie hits screens on October 16, and until then everything is just speculation.