DJ Hero: Built From Scratch

Make no mistake about it2009 was a particularly rough year for deejays. There was the normal disrespect of the craft, such as Heinekens infamous Birth of the Scratch commercial, or DJ Jazzy Jeff being kicked out of a Kansas City club for playing Hip Hop music during his set. Things got worse when one of deejayings main conduits to the mainstream, DJ AM, died from an accidental overdose in August. Arguably the roughest blow took place when Grandmaster Roc Raida [click to read] and DJ Mr. Magic [click to read] died within weeks of each other in September. So if any if Hip Hop cultures vaunted four pillars deserved its own video game, deejaying would certainly be atop the list.

With Hip Hop already having been bastardized to a certain extent (Parappa the Rapper, anyone?), its understandable why even the most open-minded of Hip Hop purists would be a bit hesitant about a Hip Hop video game that focused on deejays. HipHopDX very well could have reviewed the game, much like we try to do with the Madden [click to read], Grand Theft Auto and other gaming franchises within the realm of Hip Hop. But, considering the type of year its been for deejaying culture, weve gone a few steps further. In addition to playing the actual game, weve rounded up a few deejays featured in the game, one which wasnt and talked to the actual programmers in hopes of bringing you the most comprehensive coverage of DJ Hero before it hits stores on October 27.

We began with the most obvious question. How do actual deejays feel about a game that showcases deejaying and turntablism for the mainstream? First to answer was DJ Babu of Dilated Peoples and the World Famous Beat Junkies.

On one hand I think it's great, it shows the impact deejaying has had on pop culture and the masses, Babu offered. Hopefully, at the least, it will also spark interest in the art. On the other hand I hope it doesn't turn deejaying in to a novelty. Babu wasnt featured in the current edition of DJ Hero, but he is more than qualified to weigh in. In addition to currently working on his solo effort Duck Season 3.5, Babu is a Vestax World Championship turntablist.

In hopes of easing the fears of Babu and his many peers who were too shook to express their skepticism, the developers at Freestyle Games began with a logical starting point.

This is a highly technical, challenging art form, and were trying to boil it down and get it to a mass market, explained Chris Lee, commercial director for Freestyle. The controller you see now went through about 12 different versions. We wanted to represent the deejays, and in no way did we want to suggest that we can boil down the whole thing. This merely gives people an appreciation of how much time goes into creating their art.

And speaking of representing the deejays, what was the method behind selecting which deejays made the cut (no pun intended)?

Jeremy in Activision's music department first approached me about participating in the DJ Hero game in February 2009, after I released my Q-Tip mixtape [click to listen], says J.Period. There weren't really any mixtape deejays represented in the game, and I was happy to hold that side down and bring my sensibility to the game.

J.Period is joined by Grammy Award winner DJ Jazzy Jeff, the late DJ AM and, of course, the legendary Grandmaster Flash, Daft Punk and a cast of many more. Using the aforementioned controller, which features one turntable with three buttons mounted atop it, a crossfader mechanism and the basic buttons featured on each respective gaming console, each featured deejay can hold down the wheels of steel. Much like its predecessor, Guitar Hero, detractors will point out the fact that the game doesnt exactly mirror the act of manipulating a pair of belt-driven turntables.

We made the decision not to have the turntable rotate under its own power, because we wanted people to be able to scratch, says Jamie Jackson, creative director and founder of Freestyle Games. When you use a good pair of turntables with a proper slip mat, the whole point of the slip mat is so the record glides nicely and feels good. So we were trying to create that feel as opposed to the weight of the turntables.

Technical aspects aside, the average consumer wants to know if the game is fun to play. One of Guitar Heros drawbacks was that the fun factor diminished if you werent particularly fond of metal or hair bands. DJ Hero addresses this with cross-genre mash-ups that require players to mix songs as disparate as Izzo (H.O.V.A.), Heard It Through the Grapevine, Another One Bites The Dust and even Ice Ice Baby.

As a developer, we loved playing Guitar Hero, but we liked other kinds of music tooHip Hop, Drum & Bass and just music in general, Jackson adds. We wanted to give consumers something they could interact with that had music outside of Rock and Indie, and the deejay peripheral allowed us to do that.

In the final analysis, DJ Hero has all the marks of a superior video game. The graphics are on point, the difficulty can be customized according to individual players, theres serious replay value both in single or multiplayer modes and the game is actually fun. Activision and Freestyle score bonus points for making the game Guitar Hero compatible, making for what might be the first turntable/electric guitar combo many gamers have seen since Run DMC and Aerosmiths Walk This Way. Perhaps, most importantly, DJ Hero won the approval of actual deejays, and not just because the game is a great platform for them to market their music.

At the end of the day, I think it captures the deejay experience as good as any video game could hope to, says J.Period. The roster of artists and deejays represented is ill. I mean, I got to mix Mobb Deeps Shook Ones Pt II and Gangstarrs Just to Get a Rep for one of my mixes. How could you possibly go wrong with a game that is representing real Hip Hop like that?