That moment when a Sonic game had a cameo of Malcolm X

During its more than 30 years of existence, Sonic has had the opportunity to collaborate with various characters, from Mario to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. And with the character being more popular than ever thanks to the movies, it’s worth remembering the time when his path crossed with none other than El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, better known as… Malcolm X.

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I have a dream. And a Sonic game.

We go back to the tumultuous year of 2005, a time when Nintendo was killing it with its DS and SEGA saw an opportunity to revive its two-dimensional Sonic games. And that’s how ‘Sonic Rush’ was born, a very remarkable attempt full of great songs and secrets… and in which, in the final battle against Doctor Robotnik, we hear a speech by Malcolm X.

Specifically, a part where he repeats over and over again “Too black, too strong”, a speech he gave in 1963 that, as expected, was not about Sonic. Hopefully. In fact, he was criticizing the civil rights movement and emphasizing his idea of the black revolution. In fact, at the moment sampled in ‘Sonic Rush’ he is talking about… coffee: “It’s like when you have a coffee that is too black, which means it’s too strong. What do you do? You mix it with milk; you weaken it”.

So, how did it end up in a Nintendo DS children’s game? Well, all thanks to its composer, Hideki Naganuma, whom you may know for creating the incredible soundtrack of ‘Jet Set Radio’ and who stated that the song makes sense because this particular theme is about… well, coffee. He’s not lying. And frankly, we shouldn’t overlook the fact that a mid-20th century revolutionary has a place in a Sonic game. Incredible.

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