Greta Thunberg’s powerful UN speech can now be enjoyed under the bright lights of a molly-induced splendor. Fatboy Slim, the British DJ and producer, sampled the teen climate activist’s speech in a remix of his 1998 big beat hit, “Right Here Right Now,” and it… kind of slaps.
Fatboy Slim performed the remix at a show in the United Kingdom last weekend. The Guardian reports that a Thunberg/Fatboy Slim mash-up originally made the rounds in September when musician David Scott remixed her speech with “Right Here, Right Now” set to a video of melting icecaps, starving polar bears, and President Trump in climate change denial mode. Fatboy Slim shared Scott’s work on Facebook, but has now put his own spin on it.
“People are suffering, people are dying, entire ecosystems are collapsing,” Thunberg says over what I can only describe as trance EDM violins. “We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money.”
Her voice continues: “You are failing us, and the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now is where we draw the line. The world is waking up. And change is coming, whether you like it or not.”
And, naturally, Thunberg’s “right here, right now” line became the chilling and moving refrain leading up to the beat drop.
Electronic music culture has been so saturated by the excesses and corniness associated with EDM that it’s easy to be cynical about an environmentalist’s brutal takedown of world leaders being enjoyed in this kind of space (how much energy did this performance use?). But Thunberg is not the first nor will she be the last activist to have her voice used in a song, and at least the song goes off!