It was probably about a year ago that someone showed me a medley of a full Beyoncé album jammed into something like a minute, by a duo called Superfruit. Pretty much all their videos had a massive amount of views on YouTube and I was very quickly led to another group the guys were members of, Pentatonix, who also scored well on YouTube.
At that time, neither one of the groups were familiar to me. The sheer amount of views and subscribers were dazzling and their work was up to par. Enough to spark a serious interest in them, even leading up to me seeing Pentatonix live at one their concerts this year in Amsterdam.
So, even though, I’ve continued to keep an eye on Pentatonix, I actually don’t keep up with the Superfruit YouTube channel. And that’s a shame, because the guys get pretty original on some well-known material.
Since I last checked out their channel, they’ve released so much cool material, like the Evolution of Miley Cyrus and a medley of Empire songs, but the funniest adaption would have to be their two Hip Hop Goes Broadway videos.
I think rap lyrics can get away with so much, not just in terms of topics and use of language, but most of the time they also have speed on their side. I think the most lyrics in songs are usually used in rap songs.
Sure, Hip Hop can get downright dirty, but mostly there’s as much drama in Hip Hop as there is in theatre, so Superfruit took that hint and transformed some of the most popular songs in Hip Hop today to Broadway musical songs.
I’m sure, they’re not making any friends with it in the Hip Hop scene. I´m not even sure if they would take it as a compliment, but they should, because it actually works. The lyrics lend themselves nicely and who knows, maybe some Broadway producer will see the light and bring a Hip Hop musical to the stage next.
Superfruit just uploaded their second HHTB video a few days ago and have already attracted over a million views. The first edition was uploaded in June of this year.
Pentatonix, in the meantime, have stepped into their new phase. They´ve signed a publishing deal for all their written material and their official debut to original material, a selftitled album, was released last week and looks like it might enter the top of the Billboard album charts this week. A new phase has started. The acapella group that mainly brought you covers is turning into a proper band. Just like they wanted.
