Long before horrorcore entered its own lane, hip-hop was closely connected to horror films, going all the way back to the genre’s earliest days. The roots of horrorcore can be traced to Jimmy Spicer rapping about the time he met Dracula on his epic 1980 single “Adventures of Super Rhyme,” or DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince’s “A Nightmare on My Street,” which parodied the horror franchise “Nightmare on Elm Street” in the ‘90s. One of the first rap songs to show up in a horror film was the Fat Boys’ “Are You Ready For Freddy?,” the video for which actually featured Freddy himself. Rap’s love affair with horror films always had a certain edge.
To capture this continuing dedication to horror and gore, rap fans have been treated to horror-inspired rap songs from groups including Mobb Deep, 2Pac, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and Three 6 Mafia, to name a few. Their obsession with horror soundtracks bled all over the music, utilizing samples such as Mike Oldfield’s “Tubular Bells” from “The Exorcist,” Goblin’s score from “Suspiria” and more. The trend continues to this day, with artists drawing from the vast world of horror to shape everything from lyrical themes, film samples or spine-tingling beats and rhymes to accompanying visuals and album artwork. Don’t be frightened – come along with us as we subject ourselves to some of hip-hop’s biggest jump scares with these haunting tracks.
LISTEN TO THE HAUNTING HIP-HOP TRACKS PLAYLIST ON SOUNDCLOUD NOW
21 Savage - redrum
Yes, it’s named for the backwards-spelled warning that Danny Torrance envisions in “The Shining”
HIKARI-ULTRA - CABIN IN THE WOODS (feat. Jasiah)
Named for the cult classic horror movie, with more references to boot: “Fear me like I’m Jason, comin’ out the lake”
Bankroll Fresh - Mind, Body,& Soul
The Atlanta rapper’s posthumous “Mind, Body,& Soul” track features a chilling sample of Goblin’s chilling “Suspiria”
Megan Thee Stallion - Scary (feat. Rico Nasty)
“Say my name like Candyman,” Megan warns, and she’ll be there to haunt your dreams
SpaceGhostPurrp - Mystikal Maze
Samples the audio recording that became an urban legend when it was reported to be the actual sound of Hell
Doechii - CATFISH
The Tampa-reared rapper calls out a “freaky lil’, sneaky lil’, creepy lil’ whack bitch” on this foreboding track
Kodak Black - Halloween
Dropped in time for All Hallow’s Eve 2017, Kodak raps that he’s so evil, it should be his birthday
Metro Boomin - Nightmare
Another track dropped on Halloween, this collab summons Freddy Krueger: “Give ‘em a nightmare”
Denzel Curry - TABOO | TA13OO
The covers alone for his 2018 album were terrifying
Immortal Technique - Dance With The Devil
It’s a classic story-song about a young hustler… until things go very, very wrong
Danny Brown - Gremlins
Going back to 2013 for this horror show: Scaring MFs “like it’s Crystal Lake and Jason”
JAY-Z - D'evils
From 2002, Hova compares “da evils” of money to the temptations of… Satan
Big L - Da Graveyard
Classic ‘90s posse cut led by the Jay-Z contemporary (“Sending garbage MCs to the graveyard”), featuring young Jay himself
DMX - The Omen (feat. Marilyn Manson)
As if DMX’s “Damien” voice isn’t scary enough, for this 1998 track he enlisted the Antichrist Superstar
ScHoolboy Q - Floating (feat. 21 Savage)
Appearing on ScHoolboy Q’s fifth studio album, ‘Crash Talk,’ the chilling track sees the two rappers trading verses about intoxication and altered mindstates
Dr. Dre - Murder Ink (feat. Hittman & Ms. Roq)
The hip-hop legend’s 1999 “Murder Ink” boasts a chilling sample of John Carpenter's “Halloween Theme”
21 Savage, “Spiral”
For the ninth installment of the “Saw” franchise in 2021, 21 Savage dipped back to the 2004 original, sharpening his blade on Charlie Clouser’s ominous “Hello Zepp.”
$UICIDEBOY$, “Degeneration in the Key of A Minor”
The lead track on the second album by these punk-rap New Orleanians pays homage to one of the all-time horror classics, the original “Friday the 13th.”
Vince Staples,“LIL FADE”
For his 2021 track “LIL FADE,” Vince dug deep in the Bollywood archives, sampling the soundtrack to the 1981 murder spree “Sannata.”
Three 6 Mafia, “Anyone Out There”
Horror-loving Memphis veterans reached back to an early source for the spooky sample on this 1997 track: Disney’s 1964 sound effects LP “Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House.”
$UICIDEBOY$, “Lemon $lime”
Christopher Young’s theme to the first film in Clive Barker’s “Hellraiser” series (1987) is a masterwork of dread, a feeling surely befitting $UICIDEBOY$.
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, “Thug Luv” (feat. 2Pac)
“It’s a cold-ass world,” the late 2Pac told us on this collaborative classic, which samples the “Friday the 13th” theme. Any world that could give us Jason Voorhees is ruthless, no doubt.
Fabolous & Jadakiss, “F vs J Intro”
They named the album “Friday on Elm Street.” Naturally, Fab and Jada looked to Charles Bernstein’s “A Nightmare on Elm Street” super-eerie soundtrack (1984) for inspiration.
Travis Scott, “Days Before Rodeo: The Prayer”
Based on a short story by Clive Barker, the original “Candyman” was set in Chicago’s notorious Cabrini Green projects. Travis sampled Philip Glass’s opening theme on his 2014 mixtape.
Three 6 Mafia, “Baby Mama” (feat. La Chat)
For this track about the horrors of child support, Memphis’s finest raided the soundtrack closet of the “Child’s Play” franchise. Maybe the kid’s name was Chucky.
Jedi Mind Tricks, “Chinese Water Torture”
More from the mind of Laura Olsher, the composer behind Walt Disney’s sound effects albums. “My basement’s an arrangement of different torture devices,” the Jedis inform us. Yikes.
Smoke DZA,“Fish Tank”
To put us on the edge of our seats, the NYC rapper and producer Lee Bannon plucked from Danny Elfman’s soundtrack to Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”
Prodigy of Mobb Deep, “Self Conscience”
An all-time horror theme, Mike Oldfield’s “Tubular Bells” became a hit record when it was used in “The Exorcist.”
$UICIDEBOY$ x Germ, “BUCKHEAD”
Elmer Bernstein scored more than 100 films for Hollywood, including “The Magnificent Seven,” the 1991 “Cape Fear” remake, and “An American Werewolf in London,” sampled here.
Fat Boys, “Are You Ready for Freddy”
We can’t confirm, but this may be the first example of a horror-franchise serial killer busting rhymes: “Mr. Big Time, Fred Krueger, dream crasher,” with Robert Englund on the mic.
Flatbush ZOMBiES - Bounce
They don’t call themselves the Glorious Dead American Rap Group for nothing
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