A DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince music video called "Nightmare On My Street" literally went missing for over 30 years only to resurface on Halloween, in what must be a calculated act. The Freddy Kruger-inspired video was extracted from the now-outdated He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper. It nevertheless represents an important stepping stone for the nascent art form of rap. Hip-hop historians (if you will) seemed to have forgotten a music video ever existed. Take a look for yourself:
The current Youtube video, uploaded on the 22nd is at risk of being taken down by an unknown subsidiary holding its rights, so help us God.
The checkered history of the song is well documented. "Nightmare On My Street" was supposed to be a single off DJ Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince's album until New Line Cinema caught wind of the situation and demanded the video be wiped from existence due to a perceived copyright infringement. The"Freddy Kruger" character was incidentally licensed by the company.
In an interview with BoomBox, Jazzy Jeff corroborated the murky ending of the "Nightmare On My Street" story.
"No one’s ever seen that video; we got sued for 'Nightmare.'" Jeff explained to BoomBox. "Like to this day, I don’t know… I had a copy of the video and I had an old girlfriend that taped soap operas over it. Will had a copy of the video and gave it to his dad and his dad lost it, but I don’t know anyone who has that video. That video is not online, that video is… like, it may be twenty people in the world that seen that video."
Enjoy it while it lasts, folks.
