El Rey Demonio

Template:Infobox song "El Rey Demonio" is the fifth track on the "Dropped Frames, Vol. 1" instrumental release by Mike Shinoda.

Background

"El Rey Demonio" is a song by Mike Shinoda made during the 2020 global COVID-19 pandemic.

In March 2020, the global pandemic created by the COVID-19 coronavirus caused communities to quarantine at home. During this time, Mike Shinoda decided to start live streaming online and inviting fans to watch him create new instrumental music.

"El Rey Demonio" was a track made by Mike on May 14, 2020 under the working title "514 El Rey Demonio." This CoronaJam was the result of several ideas. Due to receiving so many requests to make jams in specific styles, Mike on May 14 decided to start mashing up several requests at once. "El Rey Demonio" was the first track to be created from mashups - fan Silent Chaplain requested "Mariachi hip hop" and fan MadelineVs requested "Horror movie hip hop."^[1]

The song was named "El Rey Demonio" because it means "The Demon King", inspired by the genre of the track.

Mike said, "Wow, so this is going to be a good one. I decided that you guys are getting ShinodaBucks so quickly and redeeming your prizes quickly so I decided to start mashing up some of the styles. As you know, one of the things you can redeem when you get ShinodaBucks is you can put a jam style request into the "Bowl of Destiny." I decided to start mashing them up because you are doing so many. I pulled two, I pulled Silent Chaplain requested Mariachi Hip Hop and MadeleineVS requested "Horror Movie Hip Hop." Wow. I love it, it's going to be great."

He added, "We're back in Ableton, we've got Maschine loaded up with some things. These are our first two loops - the trumpets. Thank God I found these on sounds.com because if not for that, I wouldn't know what to do. I don't play trumpet. But I've got that. Then we're going to go from that (Mariachi 1 and Mariachi 2) to making a beat. My vibe is the following beat. Let's put a side chain-ish thing on it, I'm using the LFOtool.... just a little texture."

Mike held a listening party on Twitch for "Dropped Frames, Vol. 1" on July 10, 2020, the day of the album's release.^[2] About "El Rey Demonio", he said, "El Rey Demonio was mariachi meets horror music or horror hip hop. This one was a cool one, a weird one. I feel like this is one that really benefited from the mashup. At the end of this one is like a breakbeat thing too. Did the amino thing happen before this track, or after it? When I drew the amino doge. I feel like this is the companion song, this with demon dog."