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Fat Joe: Hip Hop Icon
F
at Joe recently stopped by Atlanta’s Four Season’s Hotel with video game creator Kudo Tsunoda to discuss the making of Electronic Arts latest creation, Def Jam: Hip Hop Icon, which features many Hip Hop stars including T.I., Big Boi, Young Jeezy, The Game, and Joey Crack himself.
Fat Joe, you’re everywhere these days. How did you get down with the video game? I’ve always liked the game, and I know kids love videogames. I wanted to be under everybody’s Christmas tree on Christmas Eve, and I think it would be dope for the kids to fight with Fat Joe against their favorite rappers. It’s a hot concept from the jump. Since you’re not a Def Jam artist, how did you get involved with a Def Jam video game? There’s a couple of guys that ain’t on Def Jam. There’s T.I., there’s Fat Joe, Jim Jones. You know, the original Def Jam is Hip Hop, so anytime you can support that cause, it is what it is. I’ve been a part of all the Def Jam games, but they took it to a completely different level with this one. The screens are iller, the fights, the moves are iller. They got a section where you can shop for clothes. I’m a sneaker freak so they got a Jordans section; you can buy your character LRG and Phat Farm, so you could be fly and get jeweled up. When you get tired of playing with your favorite rapper you can create somebody in your own likeness who looks just like you. It’s hard to explain, but they got this ill, bug way of making noses change, eyes change, the complexion, everything, until it looks similar to you. Would you say that your character is an accurate portrayal of you? Aw, it’s dope, man. I love the Fat Joe character. I love how he moves, I love how he fights, and he looks just like me. He’s a little bit fatter than I am, though. Who is a better fighter: You in real life, or your character in the game? I think my moves in the game are ill, so I would say that the Fat Joe in the game would fuck me up, bad. Aside from this game, do you play a lot of video games? I’m real particular, real picky, so the only other game I really play is NBA Live. I don’t play Madden, cause I’m not really a big football guy. I’m more into basketball. Since this game is mainly marketed to kids, do you think fighting in videogames is a good way to divert kids from fighting in real life? Oh yeah, definitely, man. I don’t know if it “diverts” them, but you know, it’s just a game, and what are video games gon’ do? Kids can play the video games and it’s very therapeutic. It’s a way they can have fun and entertain themselves, and it’s better for them to fight in a video game than in real life. I think video games like this keep kids out of a lot of trouble. Is this game gonna be occupying a lot of your time? Definitely, it’s a hot, hot game and the crazy part is that every time you play it, it’s some new shit that you never did before, so it’s ill. 86 // OZONE MAG
Words and Photos by Eric N. Perrin What character are you most looking forward to fighting on the game? I mean, as a fan, I just fought Jeezy against The Game on there. I had them fight on the set of 106th & Park. So, who won? The Game won, but it’s just a video game. But that was ill! So I can see where the fans are really, really gonna enjoy themselves with this game. //
Next, we spoke with the video game creator Kudo Tsunoda, General Manager of Electronic Arts Chicago and Def Jam: Hip Hop Icon’s Executive Producer: What exactly do you do at Electronic Arts and how were you involved in the production of Def Jam: Hip Hop Icon? I’m the General Manager of the studio and I’m the executive producer of the Icon game. I come up with a lot of the design concepts at the beginning of the project and then as the game is in development, it’s really my job to play the hell out of the game to see what we need to change and what will ultimately make the game more fun to play. How do you go about developing a game like this? Icon has been in development for over two years total, from the initial concept to finally getting the game done. At EA Chicago, we really try at the beginning of the game making process to immerse ourselves in the content and come up with a wealth of design ideas. We spent the first 3 or 4 months just meeting all the Hip Hop artists, finding out what’s important and coming up with the ideas for the game. What kind of goals did you have going into the project? We had three big design goals from the beginning of this project. The first one was to make the first truly authentic Hip Hop game where the Hip Hop elements drove the core game-play mechanics. If you look at other so-called Hip Hop video games, like 50 Cent’s Bulletproof, its only considered a Hip Hop game because it had people out there in bling shooting each other, but what we really tried to do with this game was have Hip Hop drive our core game play. You can see in the game that everything in the environment animates to the beat of the music. So knowing the beats, and knowing the music is a big part of fighting in the game. Even with the controls, the analog sticks are set up just like a DJ’s turntables. The other goal we had was to change the way fighting games are played by making the environment more of a third person in the fight. The third goal was to bring in the next generation of NextGen art, stylizing it to make it seem like as if you’re actually playing a Hip Hop music video. How many hours in total have you spent playing this game? Oh my God, over the last two years, I’ve played it between 10-12 hours a day, six days a week. So I’ve probably played it about 6,000 - 7,000 hours at least. Damn, I know you gotta be tired of playing this game by now. No, not even close. The game comes out this spring and its going to available on XBOX 360 and PlayStation 3. //