Originally published on GameOnAus.com in May 2022
Not long ago a member of our Mates & Games Facebook group posted a video of the intro to The Super Mario Bros Super Show. Watching and listening to this very late 80s/early 90s rap brought back so many memories. Those Saturday mornings watching cartoons, still in my pyjamas, eating my Fruit Loops with the volume down low so I didn’t wake my parents. Never really knowing what the hell paisanos are. Hang on a minute, let me look it up. “Among Italian-Americans and Americans of Italian descent, a fellow Italian or Italian-American”. Well, you learn something new every day.
But while that’s the one most people would think of, it’s not the one that I go to when someone wants to hear ‘the Mario rap”.
Collected from a cereal box in my early years, probably while watching those Saturday morning cartoons, Supermarioland (lack of spaces intended) by Ambassadors of Funk has never left me. Even all these years later I can still sing along to all the words, and even attempt it solo with the CD’s instrumental version of the song.
The song takes music and sound effects from the Game Boy game Super Mario Land and weaves them into a song that peaked at number eight on the UK Singles Charts. It also charted in the Irish Singles Chart where it reached number 22 and the Netherlands topping out at number 69 (nice).
Really the travesty is that it didn’t get higher. Sure it cracked the top ten in the UK but with lyrical genius like
She’s my lady, my pride and joy
Cause to her I’m a hero not a toy boy
So I’m climbing mountains, swinging through trees
Even facing, killer bees
How could this song not be a hit? I know, I know, you folks out there might think that I’m crazy, but this song just makes me want to rescue Daisy.
So for your listening pleasure I present to you, the objectively best Mario rap, Supermarioland by Ambassadors of Funk.