Believe it or not Hip-Hop has had a major influence on games we play these days. A lot of people may think that Rapping in the music industry is easy but in reality it’s not, sure it’s easy to rhyme words, but have you ever tried to rap on rhythm? Worrying about breath control? Keep consistent in fluidity and pronunciation of your words or even worse do all of that while coming off the top of your head? Well Def Jam has come up with a way to see if you really have what it takes to be a rapper of all trades.
Def Jam Rapstar is a karaoke based game on all the hottest new and old forms of hip-hop integrated to see if you got what it takes to be a rapstar. Your not just judge on knowing the words or tonality of the song but it also tracks your rhythm and pronunciation of the words as well. Whether your a fan of new school or old, you cant help but pick up the mic and want to play coming from a boastful library of the hottest songs like ” A milli” by lil Wayne or “I get around” by Tupac. This game is definitely for those who are really into hip-hop and more importantly for those who are trying to make it into the industry.
The game is quite simple and enjoyable at the same time. So far as of now there’s different modes of play from online battles to party play with just friends, challenges, freestyles to the solo campaign. There will even be DLC by request of certain songs wanting to be played. What makes it unique is the features within the game. Everything is integrated through your Ps3, Xbox360, or Wii web cam. To where you can save your videos of your Karaoke performance and upload it on Youtube.
You can even take your own lyrics in freestyle mode and apply it with some exclusive tracks specifically for Def Jam Rapstars made by some of the hottest producer such as Just Blaze. It’s all based on creativity and how well you can present yourself on stage. The major plus is that DJ’s can connect to Def Jam Rapstar through either console and use their own microphones to have Karaoke night at bars or clubs depending on whats the best venue.
Def Jam Rapstar seems like a solid title. Me being an artist I couldn’t resist, so I gave it a try and you can see the outcome below. My first impressions was that it’s just another generic title but playing it gave me a whole different perspective. I felt like I was really performing the song, and getting an understanding of how each rapper’s lyrical rhythm is like and what it takes when using breath control in the process.
The major fun factor for me is the duet style of play where each person can have their own set of lyrics depending on the collaborated song. For example in the song “Da Rockwilder” one person can rap as Method Man and the other as Redman. Now don’t get me wrong it does have it flaws, a problem I didn’t like is when you do party play battles, you’re both rapping at the same time and at times it may throw you off, plus hearing 2 random people rambling at the same time can sound awful, as you can see in the video.
Check out my performance of Def Jam Rapstar with Lex Yayo from GamesOnSmash here.
You can find more info about the game at the official game website here, and be sure to check out a further review of this game when it hit stores in October.
