DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince’s 1988 sophomore, the He’s The DJ, I’m The Rapper double album is iconic for many reasons, but one of them may have been forgotten during the commotion of the project’s success. “A Nightmare On My Street” is one of the most memorable Hip-Hop adaptations of the 1984 film A Nightmare On Elm Street and heads should certainly remember when the Jive/Zomba Records single dropped. The thing is, it had a video component to it. It just never saw the light of day, until now.
Originally, the visual was recorded and edited but it was never officially sanctioned by New Line Cinemas, the film’s franchise owner. Instead, the company went with the Fat Boys’ “Are You Ready For Freddy?” for A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, so Jazzy and Fresh’s rendition was deaded by a lawsuit. The information is comprehensively broken down in Brian Coleman’s Check The Technique, Vol. 2 book. In a recent interview with The Boombox, Jazzy Jeff explained further what happened with the video.
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“No one’s ever seen that video; we got sued for ‘Nightmare…’ We put out ‘Parents Just Don’t Understand,’ and that really blew up, and the next song we were coming out with was ‘Nightmare,’ and before ‘Nightmare’ came out, we got sued by New Line Cinema,” he explained.
“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,” Jeff continued. “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 20 people in the world that seen that video.”
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Rolling Stone previously reported that the video was run on MTV a few times. However, it was reportedly pulled right afterward and lost. Luckily, someone dubbed it to VHS, and it’s now on YouTube via a user named “Nancy Thompson,” the name of the main character in the first film, however unlikely to be the actual person who uploaded it. The film isn’t perfect, but 30 years later, this is a fitting walk-back in time that’s fitting for Halloween week.
Earlier this year, Jeff teamed with MICK for their ninth and latest Summertime mixtape. Meanwhile, his M3 (The Magnificent 3) is available for full stream on Ambrosia For Heads.