Rock Band vs Guitar Hero with DJ Hero

It is 3:34 am on Black Friday and the Christmas season has officially started. Some stores have been open for three and a half hours, some will be opening in less than a half hour and there are others who are going that 5:00 am route. All this to accommodate those early birds who want to get those Christmas gift worms before anyone else does.
I would be out there right now taking part in the madness, but I am heading to bed. There is no need for me to go shopping. I got myself an early Christmas gift: DJ Hero.
I will say this: I was not all that excited about the whole Rock Band/Guitar Hero fad. I get what all the fuss was about. I love DDR (America) and Beatmania IIDX (Japan) – watching them being played, not playing them – as much as the next person. So bringing those rhythmic, hand-eye coordination games to the home console is pure video game innovation. With that being said, I am not a big rock person.
I have always wanted to play the drums or the guitar, but my parents picked the clarinet. I still personally favor the drums and the guitar, I just do not see myself playing a game where I cannot enjoy the music. I would prefer my Guitar Hero and Rock Band have a soundtrack of Carlos Santana and The Roots. Since it looks like that will never happen, I decided to pass on the music genre gaming.
That was until October 25, 2009 at 5:13 pm when I saw a 15-second commercial during the Chicago Bears at Cincinnati Bengals game that changed my life.
Must I say it again, I have said it before: I am a Hip Hop head. For a little over twenty years, I dipped and dabbed in all Five Elements of Hip Hop (Emcee, Beatbox, Bboy, Graffiti and DJ) at one time or another. DJing, however, has been the only element to elude me due to lack of money.
What does one do with limited resources? One improvises. My first attempt at DJ improvisation…well, I will just say I had a bad experience. Some time in the late 80s, early 90s, my uncle’s turntable (not sure what brand but I remember it had one of those plastic covers to protect the vinyl from dust) and I had a bit of a run in. I do not remember anything after touching the record trying to imitate what I saw on Yo! MTV Raps. It must have been one of those traumatic whoopings I kept suppressed over the years because I have shied away from anything resembling a turntable.
I finally got up the courage to touch one again in 2007 when I lived with my sister (part of my extended Japan family) in Okinawa. At the time, she was a DJ and owned a set of Technica 1200S turntables. Before I touched her equipment, I made sure this time I got permission. My spinning, scratching and fading attempts to replicate what I had seen on Hip Hop videos where to no avail. I felt good, I know I looked good, but it did not sound as good as I had hoped. I was really, really bad.
When I read the DJ Hero previews from the online community, I did not pay them any mind. Those gamers do not know how long we have waited for something like this. DJ Hero is for all those Hip Hop heads that grew up listening to Grand Master Flash and DJ Jazzy Jeff; who loved hearing the scratching and mixing in classic Hip Hop songs; who, like me, might have met the flat side of a belt in an attempt to be like Jam Master Jay. DJ Hero has turned this whack DJ into a wheels of steel, video game performer. They can keep talking, but in the words of Jeff Chang we: Can’t Stop Won’t Stop.
Rock and Roll is mainstream. Hip Hop, on the other hand, started underground, fell victim to the mainstream lures and, for the most part, its pure essence still remains underground. Hip Hop is not for everybody. We expect and we want people not to like it. We encourage criticism because we feel the more people hate the more we will love it. So go on gamers, hate. Keep hating and just when you think you have hated enough, hate some more. Those of us who really and truly live the Hip Hop culture are gushing at the possibilities of DJ Hero. We know the potential is there.

Like maybe a mode where you can import your own music, DJ Hero it and record it. The legality behind pulling something like this off could be mindboggling. Could it be as simple as purchasing music from iTunes or accepting only mp4a files? I do not know. What I do know is, if the Rock Band franchise can exclusively license the Beatles and DJ Hero has the Jay-z/Eminem Renegade Edition, the possibilities are endless. If they are gong to keep the DJ freshness going, I want to see a tribute to DJ AM and Jam Master Jam, a collection honoring DJ Kool Herc – the “Originator of Hip Hop Culture," a cross cultural collaboration from Afrika Bambaataa and DJ Krush…I could go on and on and on. Yet, we – I can speak for Hip Hop – are weary of mainstream's effect of DJ Hero on Hip Hop.

With this new DJ Hero coming out, I can see a flood of wack DJs on the horizon. Maybe I should come out of retirement...anyone know where I can buy some gospel Hip Hop on vinyl?

DJ Khameleon

AKA Levia Davis

Retired DJ: December ‘08

This is one opinion I take to heart because she is in my sphere of influence. Being only five years into graffiti, I think I might feel the same way about “toy” graffiti artists who emerge when (I hope, I hope, I hope) Marc Ecko drops a second Getting Up game with the WiiSpray. With Hip Hop and video games sharing the same "freedom of expression" roots, it is only fitting that it be incorporated into video games. Not sure how feasible it would be, but I would love to see a Bboying or Beatboxing game. Then again, I see a lot of shoes in TVs and spit covered controllers in the future.