In putting together the music for the Netflix TV show Stranger Things, Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein, members of the Austin instrumental synth-rock band S U R V I V E, gave a neat homage to the synthetic, evocative sci-fi scores of the '80s. That music has quietly been a huge rap influence for years, and now it only makes sense to hear Wiz Khalifa rapping over a version of Dixon and Stein's Stranger Things theme. On the new track "Stranger Things," Wiz and guest-rapper J.R. Donato wax philosophical about how they're turning into strangers over those keyboard pulsations, and it makes for a weirdly natural fit. Listen below.
This feels late and early at the same time. Stranger Things has already gone through something like four different internet hype/backlash cycles, and yet Wiz is, as far as we know, the first rapper to use that theme.
