About

Thomas the Tank Engine Remixes are a series of YouTube videos that mix the original theme song from the children's animated television show Thomas and Friends with mostly popular rap songs.

Origin

The earliest known mash-up parody of the Thomas and Friends theme set to the vocal track a rap song was uploaded by YTMND user CookieMonster4Sael on June 7th, 2005.^[12] Titled as "Thomas the tank engine and hoes," the site featured a still shot of Thomas the Tank Engine from the show and a mash-up of the theme song overlaid with a medley track of popular rap songs from the early 2000s, including Sean Paul's "Get Busy" and Kelis' Milkshake.

Spread

On December 2nd, 2006, YouTuber wasakwarrior^[1] uploaded a remix of the Thomas and Friends theme song and 50 Cent's 2003 hit rap single “In Da Club" As of March 2014, the video has gained over 1.6 million views.

On December 17th, 2006, YouTuber BeatBreaker06^[2] uploaded another remix featuring Snoop Dogg’s 2004 song “Drop It Like It’s Hot.” As of March 2014, the video has gained over 2.8 million views.

Throughout the late 2000s, remixes of the Thomas and Friends theme continued to grow popular on YouTube, with many mashup artists mixing the theme song with a variety of hardcore / gangster rap songs, such as Dr. Dre and Snoop Dog’s “Next Episode”: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/smoke-weed-every-day (shown below, left) and Eminem’s “Business” (below, right).

On March 9th, 2009, BuzzFeed^[3] highlighted the remixes in a compilation post titled “Thomas the Tank Engine Rap Remixes.” On July 20th, 2012, the subreddit /r/thomasthedankengine^[13] was created, and is mainly dedicated to Thomas the Tank Engine remixes; it has 37,416 subscribers as of May 29th, 2016. On September 25th, 2012, hip hop magazine Complex^[4] published an article titled "The 10 Best “Thomas the Tank Engine” Rap Remixes" to celebrate the 28th anniversary of Thomas and Friends. On March 18th, 2014, Complex^[5] published a follow-up compilation with some of the more recently uploaded remixes^[6][7] featuring Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg’s “Nothin’ But a G Thang” and DMX’s “Where My Hood At” (shown below).

Notable Examples

On September 23rd, 2009, YouTuber beatTV^[9] uploaded a remix featuring Tupac Shakur’s “California Love” (shown below, left). As of March 2014, the video has gained over 100,000 views. On December 4, 2007, YouTuber Mike Rose^[10] uploaded a double-down remix combining the Thomas and Friends theme and various songs from "Clint Eastwood" by the Gorillaz to the vocal track of the The Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme (below, right).

On March 11th, 2012, YouTuber thenextwindow^[11] uploaded a remix set to Ludacris’ “Move Bitch” (shown below, left). On August 26th, 2013, YouTuber AircavesDubstep^[8] uploaded a remix of the theme song with Cypress Hills’ “Insane in the Brain” (below, right).

Search Interest

External References