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2000·Early web, before YouTube·funny

Star Wars Gangsta Rap

A homemade Star Wars parody rap that Flash turned into one of the most-watched animations of the pre-YouTube web.

You might remember it as Star Wars Gangsta Rap Special Edition

From the early web

This Moment began as a web animation, not as a video upload. Originally published on Newgrounds.

The story

What this was

A parody rap written and recorded by Jason Brannon and Chris Crawford as Bentframe, in which the Emperor announces that it is not the east side or the west side but the Dark Side, and Vader agrees. In 2000 the animator Thomas Lee found the track and built a Flash music video around it to practise; the result put Darth Vader, Yoda and Luke Skywalker into a hip-hop video with dancing stormtroopers.

It first appeared in 2000, during early web, before YouTube.

It was the top video on Newgrounds for six months, at a point when Newgrounds was where internet animation happened and YouTube did not exist. It also demonstrated the pre-YouTube pipeline in full: an audio track passed around independently, an animator adopting it without being asked, and the two parties forming a studio afterwards because the thing had worked.

It won the first Audience Choice Award at Lucasfilm's own Official Star Wars Fan Film Awards — a rights holder formally endorsing a parody of itself, which was not the industry norm in 2000. A completely redrawn Special Edition debuted at the 2004 awards, with the original audio untouched.

The same internet

Early web, before YouTube

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Grouped by explicit relationships where evidence exists, and by shared theme otherwise.

Behind the record

Where it came from

There is no original upload to identify: this Moment did not begin as one. ViralWorld holds no copy of it either — what it was, when it appeared and what people called it is the record.

Nothing here is claimed to be the first publication of this Moment, because the first publication was not an upload. This Moment began as a web animation, not as a video upload. Originally published on Newgrounds.

Not established. This index only names a creator where the evidence supports it.

What happens
A parody rap written and recorded by Jason Brannon and Chris Crawford as Bentframe, in which the Emperor announces that it is not the east side or the west side but the Dark Side, and Vader agrees. In 2000 the animator Thomas Lee found the track and built a Flash music video around it to practise; the result put Darth Vader, Yoda and Luke Skywalker into a hip-hop video with dancing stormtroopers.
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