While I was not a fan of Marvel's Iron Fist, I will not front; my Marvel standom makes it so I had to hate-watch it, especially with this being the lead-in to The Defenders. It's the completist in me. What's ill is while I was indulging in binging on Iron Fist, I realized that Danny Rand f*cks with a lot of hip-hop. The show started with a truly iconic track, and with his trusty iPod by his side, we got a clear taste of Danny's hip-hop love from the very first episode, highlighting Marvel's continued love affair with the world of hip-hop.
This wouldn't be the first time Marvel's Netflix properties delved into the world of hip-hop. Luke Cage showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker made it a point to not only get Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Adrian Younge as the music supervisors for the first season, but each episode was titled after a song from Gang Starr (not to mention that the likes of Method Man and Jidenna were featured during the first season). Marvel's hip-hop ties stretch further than Luke Cage, though. They've had an amazing streak of Hip Hop Variants, which are variant covers of the debut issues of new Marvel comics series flipping dynamic cover art for hip-hop albums into amazing comic book art. They even got Method Man to pen a Ghost Rider comic book for Christmas. How ill is that?
It's also just dope to see that Power Man's homey Iron Fist has a connection to the world of hip-hop before they link up in Defenders. You have to hope that they share an aside where Danny's nodding his head to something in his headphones, and Luke comes over like "is that The Purple Tape I'm hearing?" That'd be the truth. My fantasy booking aside, let's run through the hip-hop tracks that Danny Rand was blaring throughout the first season of Marvel's Iron Fist.
Outkast - "So Fresh, So Clean"
Where?: "Snow Gives Way: (Season 1, episode 1)
Release info: Taken from their 2000 release Stankonia
The premiere episode of season one is bookended by "So Fresh, So Clean," playing during a major moment of discovery for Danny, and one of a more traumatic nature from 15 years earlier.
Camp Lo - "Krystal Karrington (Demo)"
Where?: "Snow Gives Way: (Season 1, episode 1)
Release info: This is taken from On The Way Uptown, which is a compilation of rarities and previously-unreleased demos of material from and preceding their 1997 classic Uptown Saturday Night
This isn't even the wildest cut that's played, but it's one of those that makes you squint your eyes like "oh word, Danny? You're on these hip-hop blogs like that? You had a Macbook in K'un-Lun, fam?"
Killah Priest - "Heat of the Moment"
Where?: "Snow Gives Way: (Season 1, episode 1)
Release info: Taken from Killah Priest's 2001 released Priesthood
While it's dope to see that there's two Wu-Tang connections to Iron Fist (Priest is an affiliate, while Wu-Tang's Abbot, The RZA, directed episode six of the series), it looks like "Heat of the Moment" might tell a deeper, more intertwined story that mirrors what Danny's going through.
The Cool Kids - "Black Mags"
Where?: "Rolling Thunder Cannon Punch" (Season 1, episode 3)
Release info: Their 2008 release The Bake Sale
Now this was a major blast from the past...10 years. "Black Mags" was the song that turned The Cool Kids to a duo who were on everyone's tongues, and for good reason. We imagine those who knew what this banger was were pleasantly surprised when they saw Danny annoy Colleen Wing in her dojo when he was doing his training while blasting this gem.
Vince Staples - "Hang N' Bang (feat. A$hton Matthews)"
Where?: "Eight Diagram Dragon Palm" (Season 1, episode 4)
Release info: Taken from Vince's 2015 release Summertime '06
It was dope to see a) Danny's influence seemingly rub off on Colleen while she b) was beating tf out of a wooden dummy to this Vince cut.
Run The Jewels - "Blockbuster Night Part 1"
Where?: "Eight Diagram Dragon Palm" (Season 1, episode 4)
Release info: El-P and Killer Mike's 2014 release Run The Jewels 2
One of the best parts of Iron Fist is seeing Colleen f*ck dudes up in the nightly cagefights she enters, and it's even iller to have a song that starts off with "bunches and bunches/punches is thrown until ya' front-less" be the soundtrack to one of her battles, especially when you realize that this isn't even Run The Jewels' first collaboration with Marvel.
Anderson .Paak - "Come Down"
Where?: "Bar the Big Boss" (Season 1, episode 12)
Release info: .Paak's 2016 release Malibu
While not as hip-hop as the rest of this collection, .Paak's track plays soundtrack for an intimate scene with Danny and Colleen as they train together back at her dojo. The lyrics lowkey play into what they have gone through and where they might be going, and again, it's nice to see their worlds colliding to a funky jam (which he triumphantly flipped during this year's Grammy ceremony).
