At this point, Mortal Combat is more than just a video game. It's become a cultural touchstone across scenes and genres, particularly hip-hop (I challenge anyone to find me a person who doesn't know the classic "fatality" voice). Take, as an example, Teyana Taylor's halloween costume from this year.
But today hip-hop and Mortal Kombat have merged in a more official way. The trailer for the new instalment in the series, Mortal Kombat 11, is out and backed by a brand new song by 21 Savage. This is a match made in heaven. All 21 raps about anyway is fights, threats, etc: "Niggas love sneak dissing on twitter/They don't want beef for real/And all these niggas play like they tough/'Til a nigga get killed." The new trailer exploits this tendency with lyrics like "Tryna fist fit, boy you dumb for that (stupid)/you gon' get a bullet in your lungs for that."
As for the trailer, it begins with a bleak scene, skeletons and dead bodies on the ground, as Raiden is dragged out of the sky by Scorpion, who's got him stuck through with a sword. When Raiden gets up he comes right back and lunges, hitting Scorpion at the moment the beat drops. In the end, after getting his head exploded and coming back for another round, Scorpion not-so-cleanly decapitates Raiden. After the head gets cut off, kicked through the air and speared right through the mouth, the beat comes in and 21 says "you gon' be next."
More details of the game will be released on January 27th.
