Def Jam Rapstar developer hopes game will change perceptions of hip-hop
Jamie King didn’t think selling a hip-hop slanted video game would prove to be as tough as it was.
As one of the co-founders of Rockstar Games, King turned titles such as Grand Theft Auto and Midnight Club into classics of the gaming world, but with karaoke-based franchises such as Guitar Hero, Rock Band and Karaoke Revolution flying off shelves, the 4MM Games president rightfully wanted in on the action.
After being approached by music executive Kevin Liles, now the president of Def Jam Interactive, King thought it was time to try something that hadn’t been previously done (successfully, that is): create a fully interactive hip-hop karaoke game.
Minus the turntable world of DJ Hero and the critically panned Get On Da Mic, hip-hop has largely been ignored by the gaming world, something that both confused and frustrated King.
“Looking at music and karaoke games, there is no hip-hop in them. Hip-hop is a global genre,” he said, pointing to urban music’s continued chart dominance -- at the moment eight out of the top 10 Billboard 100 entries are urban singles.
Spending a year getting turned down didn't help either. “Distributors kept asking why we wanted to do a game about hip-hop. There is an idea about the culture that comes with hip-hop," he said. "It was scary. Would anyone believe in what we believed in?”
King and Liles eventually inked a deal with Konami, the makers of Dance Dance Revolution, and the two began developing the recently released Def Jam Rapstar.