Mylo The Cat isn’t the only mashup artist who’s discovered that the denizens of Sesame Street align amazingly well with vintage hip-hop tunes. YouTuber Spunnywigg has very quietly created a bunch of clever voice sync vids throwing it back to the old school, both song- and character-wise. There’s the early ’70s-era detective Sherlock Hemlock lip-syncing to Kool G Rap’s “Poison,” for example, and Ernie and the slightly seedy Lefty the Salesman tackling the Digital Underground’s “Sex Packets.” On the Muppets tip, perhaps the most inspired clip is Miss Piggy’s uber-’80s, aerobics-themed “Snackcercise” lip-synced to Queen Latifah’s “The Hook.”
More recently, Spunnywigg crafted a life-affirming tribute to the late Phife Dawg: a voice sync of A Tribe Called Quest’s “Scenario” with scenes from old-school Sesame Street episodes. The pairings are inspired and obviously involved plenty of research. For Charlie Brown’s “How now, brown cow?” line, the clip flashes to Kermit The Frog’s scenes with the singing cows; Dinco D saying “later alligator” brings up Grover hanging with the creature. Phife Dawg’s opening verse, meanwhile, is handled by Elmo in his various guises: pirate, president of the United States, astronaut. And using clips of Fozzie Bear and Count Von Count to represent Q-Tip and Busta Rhymes (respectively) is sheer genius. No wonder the video ends up functioning as a fitting tribute to A Tribe Called Quest’s vibrant legacy as well.