Lost Classics: WWF Aggression (Music Album)

So this is one of those rare non-gaming Lost Classics, but it’s justified since there are plenty of games based on the WWF (or WWE as it’s called now), and there are plenty of games featuring hip hop music.

Say what you will about Vince McMahon, but the guy is a marketing genius. If you didn’t figure it out already from his basically changing the face of North American professional wrestling and buying out his two biggest competitors, his marketing of his WWE superstars is something that should be studied by all business majors. While outfits like WCW, AWA, and TNA focus on marketing their brand using their wrestlers, WWE markets its wrest…..er, entertainers (cuz we’re not allowed to say wrestling anymore) as brand names. In the early 2000s, the WWF was particularly riding high, as their wrestlers were more popular than ever, and WCW was slowly sinking. Hip hop music is pretty popular as well, and the WWF/E/whatever, along with professional wrestling in general, made several attempts to incorporate into its storylines, with some attempts (M.O.M, New Jack) working out better than others (WCW’s No Limit Soldiers, P.M. News). In 2000, the WWF released WWF Aggression, a hip hop flavored album that was clearly one of pro-wrestling’s better attempts to fuse the squared circle with the DJ’s vinyl circles.

WWF Aggression was comprised of hip hop remixes of wrestlers’ entrance themes. The album features the likes of Method Man, Ice-T, C-Murder, Snoop, and Mystikal. There are some pretty surprising collaborations on this album as well. Ol’Dirty Bastard and Kool Keith perform Mankind’s theme, Mystikal and Rass Kass perform Triple H’s theme, and Redman performs “No Chance” with Rock of Heltah Skeltah. Much of the production consists of heavy metal guitar riffs, and the lyrics actually makes this better than most of the albums by artists like Limp Bizkit that tried to combine rock with rap. Some of the better songs on the album include Snoop’s remix of Stone Cold’s theme and Run DMC’s remix of Dgeneration X’s theme. If you’re a wrestling fan that likes hip hop, then you’ll do well to grab a copy of this album if you can find it cheap. If nothing else, it’s good for a laugh.