In 2001, a UK virtual band built around animated characters released a single featuring an Oakland underground rapper that most of their audience had never heard of. It became one of the biggest songs of the year, introduced Del tha Funkee Homosapien to millions of new listeners, and remains one of the most unusual commercial crossovers in hip-hop history. Here’s how it happened.
How Del Met Gorillaz
Gorillaz — the project of Blur frontman Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett — was conceived as a comment on music industry artifice: an entirely virtual band whose animated members would be the public face while real musicians made the actual music. For their debut album and its lead single, Albarn wanted a rapper. He wanted Del.
The connection came through shared musical circles. Albarn had been tracking the U.S. underground hip-hop scene and was specifically drawn to Del’s work with the Hieroglyphics collective. The abstract lyrical approach, the willingness to operate outside genre norms, and Del’s distinctive voice all aligned with what Albarn was trying to build.
The Song
“Clint Eastwood” was released in March 2001 as the debut single from the Gorillaz self-titled album. Built around a sparse, eerie melodic loop and programmed drums, with Albarn’s sung hook carrying the melody, the track left substantial space for Del’s verse.
Del performed in character as a zombie MC — the character “Del Tha Ghost Rapper” in the Gorillaz animated universe. His verse is dense, funny, technically precise, and entirely committed to the absurdist premise:
“I got sunshine in a bag / I’m useless but not for long / The future is coming on…”
The track reached #4 in the UK charts, was a significant hit across Europe, and received substantial US alternative radio play. For a collaboration between a virtual British art project and an Oakland underground rapper, this was an extraordinary commercial result.
The Impact on Del’s Career
The timing of “Clint Eastwood” was significant for Del in multiple ways. It arrived the same year as his Deltron 3030 album with Dan the Automator — a sci-fi concept record that demonstrated Del’s ability to operate in ambitious, cross-genre collaborative spaces.
The Gorillaz single introduced Del to an audience that would never have encountered Hieroglyphics through normal channels — British alternative music listeners, Blur fans, people who discovered the track through late-night television or European radio. Many of those listeners went back and found the full Hiero catalog. Some became lifetime fans.
More importantly, “Clint Eastwood” validated Del’s approach on the global stage. The track worked because Del’s style was genuinely singular — it couldn’t have been made with any other rapper, and its commercial success was a direct result of his specificity rather than despite it.
The Animated Video
The “Clint Eastwood” music video, directed by Pete Candeland, features Jamie Hewlett’s animated Gorillaz characters alongside an animated version of Del as the ghost rapper. The video became one of MTV’s most-played clips of 2001 and won multiple music video awards.
It’s notable that Del’s animated character in the video is portrayed as a genuinely menacing, technically formidable MC rather than a comic figure — the video treats his verse with the same seriousness it applies to the whole visual world Hewlett built.
The Continuing Connection
Del appeared again on the Gorillaz D-Sides collection (2007) with the track “Dell G.” The relationship between Del and the Gorillaz extended universe has continued through various live performances and collaborative moments over the years.
For fans who discovered Del through Gorillaz, the Hieroglyphics catalog is waiting. Start with 93 ’Til Infinity (Souls of Mischief), 3rd Eye Vision (Hiero crew), and Deltron 3030 (Del’s sci-fi masterpiece).
Learn more about Del and Hieroglyphics → | See them live in 2026 →