As one of the original Street Fighter II characters, it’s hard not to feel a spot of nostalgic fondness for Dhalsim. Thanks to him I’ve been practicing yoga every day in the hopes that I might one day be able to kick people in the face from 10 yards away. I think that comes on the brink of enlightenment, however, as I still have to get pretty close to people to do any serious damage.
But now my meditation just got a lot easier with the release of the “Yoga Rap” on YouTube. It’s a quick song, but not when you play it on a continuous loop as I have thanks to its infectious chants of “yoga fire” and “yoga flame” over and over and over again.
Before watching, be warned that there is no rapping in “Yoga Rap” and in fact it’s more EDM than hip-hop at all. That’s probably for the best though, because you know a real Dhalsim rap would have ranked somewhere around the “Do the Urkel” on the Briggs-Ainsworth scale of freshness.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOqwu_pn2gw
The video relies on the original Street Fighter II sprites and voices of Dhalsim (as well as Muay Thai fighter Sagat’s laugh, for some reason) for the song but brings trippy visuals to the table as well.
It’s really easy to get lost in the audio-visual experience of it all as you contemplate kōan such as: “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” or “Why the hell is a yoga master always wearing the skulls of children around his neck?”
Seriously, consider the sizes of those heads relative to his own… Those are kiddie skulls, man.
Afterwards, there is a short clips of the new Dhalsim from the upcoming Street Fighter V which people seem to hate, which is in keeping with most of the new character models for Street Fighter V. You’d think fighting game fans would be less belligerent, wouldn’t you?
Anyway, if you’re looking for a tune to light up a dance floor at your next wedding or brit milah, the “Yoga Rap” may be for you. If not, I will meditate and then destroy you.
Source and screenshots: YouTube/Joysound Channel via Kai-You (Japanese)