INTERVIEW: Team Teamwork

If you haven’t heard his two game-centric mixtapes, Vinyl Fantasy 7 or Ocarina of Rhyme, you are in for a treat here. Fusing the original soundtracks from illustrious games with the illest hip hop samples, Team Teamwork has created something unforgettable and for people like me and Lewi, being both intense lovers of music and video games it’s almost a dream come true. I recently interviewed the man behind the moniker, Tim Jacques, about his influences, his game choices and what he’s got in store for us in the future.

The game music and hip hop in your mixtapes seem to go hand in hand, what gave you the idea to mash these two very different genres together?

In January 2009, I felt like I hit a bit of a wall with my regular remixes, the ones that ended up on The Good-Ass Remixes Vol. 1. Then, my girlfriend started a new game of The Ocarina of Time. When she got to Hyrule field, it hit me that the Hyrule Field theme was the perfect tempo for a hip hop sample. Then I got the idea to dig deeper in the soundtrack and see what else I could make work. It turned out that more than half of it was in the right tempo and the other half was in 3/4 time so it was virtually unsamplable. So I set a goal to make ten remixes, came up with a name and got to work.

You have chosen both Ocarina of Time and Final Fantasy 7 for the basis of your mixtapes, quite popular choices, did you feel that you had to pick those highly revered games, or was it your own choice?

I was really familiar with the soundtracks of both games, and thought they would make for an interesting and different basis of a hip-hop song.

Is there any other games you are genuinely interested in making a mixtape of?

Not at the moment. I’m leaning toward 8bit samples. But, I guess we’ll see.

We really think Pokemon would be a good choice

You and a lot of others. But I don’t really know the music or games.

What originally got you into Hip Hop? As you have sampled so many different artists in the genre, like M.O.P., Gucci Mane, Kanye, Jay-Z, etc.

In 7th grade, I heard “Mo Money, Mo Problems” on the radio. Since then, other than a brief “I only listen to punk” period in high school, I’ve listened mostly to hip hop.

Have you thought of making your own tracks, as opposed to the remixes and mashups so far?

Yes, I have. But I would release them under a different name.

What do you think of modern games and their soundtracks? Are any good enough to work in a mashup?

None of them really stick out to me as exceptionally memorable. Except Red Dead Redemption. I’m thinking of playing around with a few songs from that soundtrack.

When can we expect any new material from you?

Within the next few months. I’m working on a collaboration right now with a very talented rapper. And I’m working on The Good-ass Remixes Vol. 2, which will be out at some point next year.

Thanks TT!

Here’s a couple of songs from the mixtapes, be sure to download the whole mixtapes over at the Team Teamwork website
From Vinyl Fantasy 7: Slum Village – Get Dis Money (One-Winged Angel)
From Ocarina of Rhyme: Dr Dre & Snoop Dogg – Still D.R.E. (Getting Treasure)