Hip Hop = Life...

Hip-Hop = Life A Tribute to John Madden Football
written by JusHH

“… You never thought that Hip-Hop would take it this far.” Those words ring out even stronger every day that passes because when Hip-Hop first started people never gave it a chance. People felt that it would be just a passing fad. Bottom line Hip-Hop isn’t going anywhere, in fact, it’s even bigger than just the music. In the Hip-Hop = Life section, we’ll pay tribute so some of Hip-Hop’s greatest influences outside of the booth.

John Madden Football

Every August, millions of people rush to their nearest video game store to pick up the newest version of John Madden Football. While Madden fans come in all shapes and colors, this game is especially popular in the hood and amongst the Hip-Hop community. Given the natural competitiveness of Hip-Hop to begin with, Madden simply became another means to show and prove. People played for hours on end, talking trash with their boys and battling on the virtual gridiron to determine who’s the “best on the block.”

Rappers themselves often admit that Madden tournaments are a tradition on their tour busses and many even mentioned the game in their rhymes. On “I Hear the People Talk”, Jay-Z dismissed “clappin’” at an amateur pace and would rather play it on “All Madden” (the highest skill level).

As with most things, when Hip-Hop takes ownership of something, people take notice. In 1999, EA Sports, the creators of the game, allowed a relatively unknown rapper to provide Madden 2000’s official theme song. This rapper was Ludacris and he tore it up. At the time, it was the biggest stage ever given to Hip-Hop on the video game scene and it just grew from there.

In the subsequent versions of the Madden, more and more original Hip-Hop tracks were being created and incorporated in the game. (During actual gameplay you could hear songs being blasted from the stadium speakers) The success that Hip-Hop had with Madden has spread to the other sports games that EA Sports created such as NBA Live and Fight Night. Consumers of these games were hit with original music by Fabolous, Chingy, KRS-ONE and many more. In 2004, EA had a rap battle for unsigned artists where the winner received a spot on that year’s soundtrack. And on NBA Live 2004, we were introduced to Joell Ortiz and his song “Mean Business”.

Today, Hip-Hop can be found in all kinds of games. The Def Jam Vendetta series actually allows you to pit rappers against each other in a street fight. (The irony of this is humorous as rappers’ trivial “battles” are often compared to the WWE.) Playing video games is an experience and to know that part of that experience is Hip-Hop, speaks to the global movement that this culture continues to lead.

Thanks John. Here’s one for the road… BOOM!