Fans of the Donkey Kong franchise are likely aware of the infamous “DK Rap” from Donkey Kong 64. Conceived as something of a goof to start off DK’s first 3D outing, the theme was written and composed by legendary composer Grant Kirkhope after being implored by designer George Andreas from Rare to pen a joke tune. He not only wrote all of the song’s lyrics, but also sang the words that would wind up in-game. Since the tune was included in 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie, you’d naturally assume that Kirkhope would be credited for his original composition. Sadly, that isn’t the case.
Now, some years later (and after Kirkhope had already mentioned the situation on social media), Kirkhope has recalled the explanation Nintendo gave him for why his name wasn’t included alongside other composers during the Mario movie’s credits. In an interview with Eurogamer, Kirkhope stated, “They said we decided that any music that was quoted from the games that we owned, we wouldn’t credit the composers — apart from Koji Kondo. Then they decided anything with a vocal would get credited, so the DK Rap scores there. But then they decided if we also own it, we won’t credit the composers. And that was the final nail in the coffin.”
As Kirkhope explained, he reached out to Nintendo at some point following The Super Mario Bros. Movie’s release and asked for an explanation of why his name wasn’t mentioned in the film’s credits. Other licensed songs, such as A-Ha’s “Take on Me” and AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” have full attributions, but the “DK Rap” got a simple credit to Nintendo and nothing more. The answer above is what they told him, and it even follows with other Nintendo “owned” songs, including “Bowser’s Fury.”
“I said I appreciate you’ve got your policies and all the rest of it,” Kirkhope elaborated, “but by the time the credits roll in the movie to show the songs, the theatre’s completely empty, everyone’s gone, it’s only me and my wife and my two kids sat there going ‘look daddy’s name!’. I said ‘for the sake of a couple of lines of text…’, but that was that.” According to Kirkhope, the sample used in the film is direct feed from the N64 game, so it’s most certainly him on the guitar and vocals, with other staff from Rare saying the “D. K.” part. No one else is credited in the film.
When questioned about whether or not Nintendo owning the song means it could eventually wind up on the Nintendo Music App, Kirkhope expressed that he isn’t sure. He did offer an opinion about the whole situation, though. “I don’t think they ever really liked DK 64 that much. That’s a rumour we got back through the cycle of whispers from Nintendo when we were at Rare. I don’t know if that’s true or not.”
Take that statement however you want, it’s still a crappy move to not credit the original composers of a song even if you dislike the game it came from. Nintendo has a history of not crediting original development teams in its remasters, however, so this is sadly not a surprising turn of events.
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Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
