The gigantic sea monster from Japan known as Godzilla has appeared in more than two dozen films since debuting in Ishiro Honda’s Godzilla back in 1954; Godzilla resurfaces in theaters today, and it’s the first American take on the iconic kaiju since Roland Emmerich’s 1998, um, abomination. I don’t use the term “iconic” lightly—Godzilla has a strong grip on pop culture beyond just the cinema world, and closer to home the creature has played a role in the development of footwork.
The record wasn’t actually a Godzilla soundtrack but a 12-inch of “Simon Says,” a 1999 single by New York rapper Pharoahe Monch, which actually uses a Godzilla sample. It piqued Space’s interest, and he ended up walking home with a copy of the single. “When I got home I was saying, ‘I hope there is an instrumental,’” he says. “When I played it it had all that I wanted.” “Simon Says” also hit close to home. “It made me have a flashback of remembering all the Godzilla movies that I used to watch at my uncle’s and I was so mesmerized by all the sounds,” Space says. His uncle lived with his grandmother when he was six, which is around the time he started watching those old monster movies on Sunday afternoons. “I just got glued to the TV.”
