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Rappers the Next Super Heroes?
The Guardian's excellent gamesblog has an editorial up discussing the role rappers and rap culture has taken in games. From the article: "Following Def Jam Vendetta and more pertinently Def Jam Fight for New York, this is another game that places real-life Hip Hop artists within a fictitious gangland setting. It's an interesting sub-genre, trading in on the mythologies that many rappers build around themselves in their lyrics, album art and endless feuds - fantasies of gun violence, rivalry and retribution."
You knew it would happen sooner or later. How many stupid games are made each year off of movies? Developers are always looking for new ways to milk pop culture for all its worth. I really don't see how they make much money off of these games that no one buys. Maybe this one will surprise us and actually be good.
A while ago, when I listened to quite a bit of rap music, there basically were a couple camps: the really talented rappers who were just plain awesome and very interesting, and then there were the ones who just threw away any real social commentary and went straight for the T&A and talking about sex as if we're cats or baboons (sad that women rappers do this, too). Since Slashdot is often a consumer-rights zone, I'd reiterate that choosing not to buy something is as important as choosing to buy something, and my opinion is that the regressive talentless hacks who claim to be poets or musicians don't deserve our cash.
Who said Rappers are gangsters? They are all wanna be gangsters. Except for Suge Knight..that [shut your mouth] is scary.
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One is born into aristocracy, but mediocrity can only be achieved through hard work.
They have been making crappy games with rappers for a while now. Cash rules everything around me.
And I don't know what they mean about fantasies of gun violence. I bet 2-Pac wishes they only had fantasies of gun violence. And as near as I can tell, 50 Cent didn't shoot himself. Suge Knight isn't really a nice guy when you get to know him. Snoop really did get put on trial for murder. Man rap music is fun.
Experts have been saying this since the late 70s and early 80s. Hip Hop, rap, this street talk is just a trendy thing. It won't last! Its only a matter of time until Kiss makes a sequel to Pyscho Circus and then you can kiss Def Jam, the NBA, and various other hip hop games good bye!
Furthermore, I believe those Def Jam Fighting games sold fairly well. I heard an African-American fellow in Blockbuster talking to another African-American fellow about how good they are.
Update For for the dupe. Not going well. Appreciate all the hate mail. Really encourages improvement.
who could forget Michael Jackson's Moonwalker?
I might as well just fsking kill myself now.
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
They're not impervious to bullets...
So if John Lennon is the working class hero, but he's basically a bad man with a lot of hoes, it's like he is the working class hero meets Wall Street. The modern life is that you must rebel (as usual) but instead of living "free" and so on, you basically live it up with bling and fish-egg coloured $300,000 cars.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is progress. The "system" has finally ironed out the rebels. This new version of The Matrix means that tyhose that rebel and try and fuck things up by killing people or selling drugs sell out and become pop-culture icons and never do we hear the likes of Snoop complain. Hell no, he's loving it. The modern "system" works. You can no longer rebel against anything.
I'd also like to add, that as a late 20s white male, I like Snoop Doggs new album a lot. So how's that for street cred? Huh? You badass mofo's like *my* type of Top 40 music?
Acting stupid isn't much fun when there's someone around who knows better
Mr. Jackson is a pillar of the community and Moonwalker is gaming gold.
'DriveBy' featuring the late 2Pac and Big-E :D
Spiderman:
"With great power comes great responsibility"
Gangsta Rapper Man:
"When the bitch don't pay up ma money, the bitch get beat!"
Yah, at least ideologically the idea seems compatible.
Sometimes my arms bend back.
Shit, rappers emulate some of the best charictors in great movies aka scarface - and guns and violence is entertaining (on a screen)
Rappers and video games have always gone together I remeber a verse where B.I.G. was talkin about snes and genesis. It's just the next logical step for them to be the stars of the games now, not just playing them. I know it makes more sense to see 50 cent in a game shootin someone rather than britney spears :) I say bring it on!
Actually, I've probably racked up more time on Moonwalker than any other game on an emulator. Every now and then I feel tired, depressed or just in need of a little laugh and Moonwalker is always there for me.
Of course this would happen. Videogames allow wannabe "thugs" to act out the life of crime, money and hookers that they wouldn't dare to live in real life.
Agreed. And Agreed. Suge Knight gives me nightmares...
Current State: Pirates > Cowboys + Ninjas + Robots Yarrrr
it's funny, because, most hip-hop albums place their real-life artists in a fictitious_gangland_setting.
Maybe the many, many white developers finally realized that African Americans are - and have been- playing their games. Or maybe studios finally started hiring minorities, although probably the former is more true.
There is a long standing tradition of ignoring minorities in video games, save perhaps sports, so it's nice to finally see them being more inclusive of urban culture, even if they are motivated only by profit. Personally, I fail to see how "millionaire ex-drug dealers" are any worse than the ultra-violent, womanizing main characters that have almost universally plagued video games since the PSX.
Especially that Mario guy and his "princess."
Not all rappers are gangsters. Some rappers, believe it or not, are actually good role models, too. Will Smith, LL, Cormega, etc.
You refer to white-skinned people as "whites" in your post. This makes sense because you are referring to skin color to define "race".
You then refer to black-skinned people as "African-American" despite the fact that people with black skin are not necessarily African nor American.
Finally, you refer to people of East-Asian descent as "Asians". This is fairly reasonable since the deprecated term "Oriental" apparently has a negative connotation in today's society. Similarly, claiming such people have "yellow" skin is often confusing to many people.
Thus, in your one post, you use the pigmentation of skin, the country of origin, and the country of birth all to describe "race". I humbly submit that not all of these facets are useful in determining race.
A good point... except who is it that get made into games?
Are we likely to see a Will Smith FPS where he jiggys bad guys into being better people?
I think the only Will Smith games you are gonna see are pickups from movie licenses where he has a gun (i.e. Bad Boys).
Sometimes my arms bend back.
Because look what kind of heroes we have in games already. Sith, Vampires, Mass Murderers, Mafia....is this really so dramatic?