What do you get when you mix Kendrick Lamar’s 2012 track “Backseat Freestyle” with the 1984 hit “Take On Me” from Norwegian pop group a-ha?
Noah Charlick discovered you get a near-perfect mashup that quickly goes viral.
“I’ve either made a great discovery or a terrible mistake,” tweeted the Duke University student, who remixes songs for fun under the moniker N0̷4H.
In the first 72 hours after sharing a clip of “Take On Backseat” this past Monday, it had been viewed more than 6.7 million times on Twitter. The full version of the mashup is now on Soundcloud and YouTube.
i’ve either made a great discovery or a terrible mistake pic.twitter.com/hhz1dnxjpW
— Noah Charlick (N0̷4H) (@noah_charlick) October 16, 2018
Thousands have reacted to the mashup on Twitter with comments like: “This is the greatest thing to ever happen to me” and “We have not done enough good or evil to deserve this.”
One DJ tweeted: “It's a match made in heaven. Lord knows it's going to be in my sets now.”
So, why does this mashup work so well? Put simply, the tempos of the two tracks match-up almost perfectly. Even the opening line, “Martin had a dream,” fits because a-ha’s lead singer is named Morten.
Charlick’s timing is perfect, too, since this week is the 34th anniversary of the release of “Take On Me” and next week marks six years since “Backseat Freestyle” came out.
Check out “Take On Backseat” by N0̷4H below: (Warning: Contains language some may find offensive.)