Did y’all know that DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince had a music video that was locked away for 30 years? Before it was released to the public, the video was considered somewhat of a musical urban legend.
Back in 1988, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince had a hit track called “A Nightmare on My Street,” and it was making waves on the charts. They decided that since the song was inspired by “A Nightmare on Elm Street” and the character Freddy Krueger, they would create a music video featuring a Freddy Krueger-inspired character.
After filming the video, instead of the nightmare being in the form of the music video theme, the nightmare came in the form of a lawsuit from the studio behind the “A Nightmare on Elm Street” franchise. The lawsuit was for copyright infringement and the potential to confuse the audience. Consequently, they were forced to essentially bury the music video to the point where nobody ever saw it.
“I had a copy of the video, and I had an old girlfriend who taped soap operas over it. Will had a copy of the video and gave it to his dad, but his dad lost it. I don’t know anyone who has that video,” DJ Jazzy Jeff said in an interview with Boombox. “That video is not online, that video is… like, it may be twenty people in the world who have seen that video.”
For years, hip hop fans speculated about the music video, wondering if it was real or not. It was 30 years later when fans discovered that it was, in fact, real! It became available for the public to watch on YouTube in 2018!
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