ABSTRACT
As commercial rap music and Hiphop elements are incorporated into all manner of global media and businesses, the union of Hiphop and video games should come as no surprise. With today’s highly advanced technologies, graphics, and sounds, video games have the ability to provide images and experiences that s(t)imulate, delight, and excite players. It is estimated that about 60 percent of Americans play video games. (Glaubke et al., 2001) The games industry takes in about 18 billion a year. (Jones, 2005: C1) In Great Britain over 26 million video games were sold in 1999, and they are even more popular in Japan. (Spina, 2004) Hiphop is providing a source of meaning and identification to people the world over. Writing of the sudden interest in developing “urban and hip-hop themes” in video games, one writer comments that the 2004 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) was the “‘thugging’ of the games industry.” (“Thug Life”: 40) In 2003, the biggest-selling PlayStation 2 (PS2) game was Madden NFL 2004. The second-best selling game that year was Need for Speed Underground. Both are urban themed. (“Thug Life”: 40) Two video games centered on Hiphop are Get On Da Mic and Get On Da Floor.1 These are both produced by a company called Eidos. Another of their games is 25 to Life, which can be played on XBOX, PS2, and PC platforms. It is rated M (for mature audiences) by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) because it contains “blood and gore,” “drug references,” “intense violence,” “sex themes,” and “strong language.” Rob Dyer, president of Eidos, thinks that successful video games are the ones “that tap into something from real life. Hiphop is an extension of the aspirational lifestyle, and there’s definitely a groundswell of games right now that all tap into this culture.” (“Thug Life”: 40)
Just as with other industries that have appropriated Hiphop, the gaming industry is a double-edged sword. From one perspective, this industry offers unprecedented opportunities for young people of color to market certain insider knowledge. For example, the makers of Grand Theft Auto San Andreas approached 50 Cent about doing some voice work for one of their characters. 50 (Curtis Jackson) and the cofounder of Interscope Records, Jimmy Iovine, were savvy enough to turn that down and get Vivendi Universal to model an entire game, Bulletproof, on 50’s life story. In this way, “The game provides 50 with a cross-promotion bonanza. All the products he designs or endorses-G-Unit clothing, Reebok sneakers, Glaceau
are pumped through this video game. From another perspective, there is controversy over issues of representation, realism, and stereotyping in the games. What are some of the components of digital Blackness as experienced through Hiphop video games? This chapter offers a brief foray into some literacy practices engaged in playing these games.
