Yesterday was my first day in a new baseball 'beer' league, and it's got be thinking about a number of empowering tracks that I'd love to have blasting while I walk to the plate or come out to the mound. Ever since I was young (and dumb enough to think wrestling was real), I would pretend I were coming into a packed arena to a la Rocky, or more recently Floyd Mayweather with boy wonder, Justin Bieber and Lil Wayne rapping at his side. Entrance music or in baseball, walk up tracks, have to be immediately recognizable, hit hard right off the bat and instantly, thrust its atmosphere of intimidation onto the scene. With that in mind, I've compiled a number of my favourite tracks to puff up my chest and peacock my way into the batter's box or onto the mound.
The first, and most recently released,
Dr. Fresch's "
Gangsta Gangsta" exudes strength and intimidation;
Baby Eazy-E's vocals only further that threatening atmosphere, of "don't fuck with me."
You've heard it in in Budwieser's latest
commercial campaign,
Baauer's use of infernal horns, makes "
Day Ones" one of the best examples of empowering tracks, that makes any entrance epic.
While the lyrics may not be the best fit, the first 5 seconds of
OG Maco's collaboration with bad boys
TWRK, is incredibly powerful and invokes a strut that rivals any wrestler entering the ring.
Despite taking a couple seconds to really hit its anthemic stride,
Rustie's "
Big Catzz" leaves just the right amount of room for one of the Buffer brothers to announce your entrance.
Another of the slow burning, building intensity,
Black Tiger Sex Machine's collaboration with
Lektrique's flows incredibly ominously underneath the unholy warbling, before exploding in a fury.
I would be remiss if I didn't include some
NGHTMRE on this list, as he's been so influential in my musical enjoyment in the past year or so, and his remix of
Slumberjack "
The Others" my favourite of his catalog and perhaps the best suited for this category of tracks.
Another one of my favourite artists,
Henrik The Artist, may not be the most intense, but this mashup with Lethal Bizzle, courtesy
Non Stop Pop, combines the genius "
On The Moon" and LB's grime laden vocals.
