What's The Song In The Black Ops - Cold War Multiplayer Trailer?

Marketing plays a crucial role in video game production, and trailers play a crucial role in marketing. A bombastic trailer, replete with blockbuster action and headbanging music, can tickle the brain and make gamers whip out their wallets, ready to pre-order. However, the music must match the trailer's tone — the trailer for Gears of War, for example, wouldn't have been half as effective if it didn't feature the somber tones of "Mad World." Plus, it helps if you can actually decipher the lyrics.

Activision launched the Multiplayer Reveal Trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War on Sept. 9. While it boasts some impressive visuals, the gunshots, explosions, and radio chatter drown out the song playing in the background. Aside from backup singers repeating the word "notorious," you can barely hear any lyrics. So, what track did the producers choose? You could listen closely and try to piece it together, or you could save yourself some trouble and read on.

At first glance, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War seems to use Duran Duran's "Notorious." After all, the game takes place in 1983, and Duran Duran recorded the song — which opens with singers declaring "Notorious!" — in 1986. Period pieces are known for utilizing era-appropriate aspects such as music but slipping in elements that are anachronistic by several years. However, on further inspection, the trailer's backing track clearly falls into the rap genre and doesn't feature other "Notorious" lyrics. This leaves only one option: "Notorious B.I.G." by The Notorious B.I.G., which draws on Duran Duran's song.

However, the Black Ops Cold War trailer uses a heavily modified version of "Notorious B.I.G." Aside from the chants of "Notorious," most of the lyrics are absent from the video. But, the only other verses in the trailer are from that song, and they are, "Got no love for the other side, f**k them tricks (f**k) them. Any repercussion, Junior M.A.F.I.A. spit clips (that's right). All the time, Big Poppa kick the war rhymes. Raw flows, and that's how it goes." Those lyrics are uttered sporadically at best, so any confusion regarding the trailer's song is understandable.