Legend of Zelda fans believe one of Kanye West’s songs from his latest album, Jesus is King, may take inspiration from the video game’s soundtrack. As Nintendo Life points out, part of “Selah” appears to share a chord progression with “Gerudo Valley,” a theme song from 1998’s The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
Illustrator and musician Louie Zong shared a mash-up of the two songs:
While it seems clear that the “Selah” producers—Boogz, Francis Farewell Starlite, Federico Vindver, E*Vax and benny blanco—didn’t copy a melody or directly sample from Ocarina of Time, one Kanye fan noted their daughter recognized the resemblance immediately.
“My daughter is a walking Legend Of Zelda encyclopedia,” @TheeJesseHelton wrote in response to Zong’s tweet. “I played this clip for her and simply asked for her to tell me what she hears. No other context. She answered excitedly: ‘That’s the Gerudo Valley theme!’ So yeah.”
In 2017, G-Eazy and Carnage actually sampled from Ocarina of Time on their joint track, “Guala.” More recently, Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em sampled The Legend of Zelda theme on his appropriately titled “Zelda.”
Genius previously traced hip-hop’s love of Nintendo samples:
As for Kanye, he previously sampled sounds from video games such as Street Fighter II on songs like “Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 2” and “Facts.”
Listen to both songs above. Read all the lyrics to Kanye West’s “Selah” on Genius now.
