Top 10 Hip-Hop Video Games

Both video games and hip hop music started their rise to prominence in the late 70s and early 80s, and since then, both have become powerhouses in popular culture. Both can entertain on their own, in their own ways, but when these two worlds meet, special things can happen and both games and songs unlike anything else can result.

For this list, we’re looking at the ten games that best utilize hip hop culture in their atmosphere, story, or gameplay. Common elements include hip hop inspired music or even licensed rap songs in the soundtrack, urban environments, graffiti art, DJs, hip hop dancing, or rappers as prominent characters, just to name a few.

Here are our picks for the Top 10 Hip-Hop Video Games.

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10. PaRappa the Rapper

This is probably the earliest and most lighthearted game on this list. Debuting in the earliestr days of the PS1, PaRappa the Rapper was not only one of the first hip-hop games but one of the first hit games of the PlayStation line. Players followed the rapping, skateboarding dog PaRappa as he raps to get through his various adventures throughout the story. With this rhythm game’s gameplay, players time button presses to matchup with the rap lyrics. The more in time the button presses are, the better PaRappa’s rapping is and the better the story looks.

This isn’t the most hardcore game out there, but with a rapping main character and hip-hop beats in the soundtrack, it fits for this list.

9. Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style

Giving this rap group a fighting game just seemed to fit.

Based on the hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan, Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style is a 4 player fighting game for the PlayStation 1. Using the engine for the canceled game Thrill Kill, all the players can interact with the environment, take on multiple opponents at once, and even perform Mortal Kombat-style fatalities on their opponents. The game takes the eastern martial arts theme’s in the group’s music as inspiration for a story revolving around honor, revenge, and mastering the ancient martial art of Wu-Tang.

Aside from being inspired by the group’s music, the game includes the group’s members as playable characters and the soundtrack is made up of abridged versions of Wu-Tang songs.

8. 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand

When most people associate gaming with gangsta rapper 50 Cent, they think of the critically panned title 50 Cent: Bulletproof, a frequent addition to worst games of all time lists. However, this game is leagues above its predecessor.

Released for the 360 and PS3, Blood on the Sand is a single-player third-person shooter starring 50 and the members of G-Unit, who arm themselves to chase after a terrorist group in an unnamed Middle Eastern country after they steal the rap group’s payment for a concert, in the form of a diamond and pearl encrusted human skull.

While the story is a bit on the ridiculous side, the gameplay is on point, with the system from Bulletproof improved upon and the gameplay flaws fixed. The hip hop vibe is also there with 50 in center screen taking down enemies to a soundtrack that includes over 40 different rap songs, 18 of which 50 Cent himself recorded just for the game.

7. The World Ends With You

No one said hip hop was strictly an American thing.

Based in the Shibuya district of Tokyo, Japan, The World Ends With You is a Japanese role-playing game that follows a group of teenagers trapped in the Reaper’s Game, where they are forced to complete a series of objectives or risk being erased from reality. During the week-long event, the teens get attacked by animalistic monsters called Noise and are given pins that grant them psychic powers to fight them off.

While the game’s story features a lot of supernatural elements, it also mixes them with youth culture to create a unique atmosphere. This includes hip-hop in a large way with several hip-hop instrumental tracks, a large urban environment, and street-style character designs. One of the several clothing brands available in the game that power-up your characters even focuses on hip-hop and skater clothes and gear.

6. Def Jam Icon

Def Jam has had a few games released over the years from the expected music games to some interesting fighting games. It’s in their fighting games that we find Def Jam Icon. While past fighting games in the Def Jam series were wrestling games, Icon take more of a traditional 2D fighting game approach.

While Icon wasn't the best game in the series, this game incorporates hip-hop in creative ways. As with the other fighting games in the series, most of the playable characters are famous rap artists, like Ludacris, Redman, Nas, T.I., and Fat Joe. The soundtrack also includes music from many of the rappers featured in the game. All of the arenas, one of which being the set of BET's 106 & Park, are interactive environments and characters can use these stage hazards to their advantage during a fight.

The soundtrack even has an effect on the fight. Character's attacks can do more damage if they hit to the beat of the song that's playing and rappers gain more power if their own song is playing during the fight, like playing as Lil Jon when the song playing during the match turns out to be "Get Low". The entire backdrop of the fight even bumps to the beat of the music and some stage hazards only happen to the beat of the music.

While this game isn't the best of the series, it is the most hip-hop.

5. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

As big as this series is, GTA is probably one of the first things people think of when they talk about video games and hip hop.

One of the more popular entries in this historically controversial sandbox adventure series, San Andreas takes place in 1992 in the titular psuedo-California state. Players control C.J., a former gang member who comes back to his old stomping grounds in Los Santos after finding out about his mother's murder and now seeks to uncover the truth while getting his old gang back together and dealing with crooked cops. The game takes full advantage of the early 90s setting to display several prominent events of the time period, including the gang wars between the Bloods and Crips, the crack epidemic that started in the 1980s, and the rise of gangsta rap. Speaking of which, the soundtrack of this game, as seen in the in-game radio stations, has not one, but two stations dedicated to both classic hip-hop and gangsta rap.

4. Def Jam Rapstar

We already talked about their fighting games. Now, for one of their music games.

The first music game from Def Ram Recordings, Rapstar is essentially a rap-themed karaoke game, including songs from classic and (at the time) modern artists. The game uses radio-edited versions of all the songs it uses to keep its T for Teen rating, so there is no swearing in the tracks, but the game won't penalize you for swearing. The default tracklist can also be expanded on, with more tracks being unlockable or downloadable. More of the tracks are also available exclusively to different modes or different regions.

3. The Hip Hop Dance Experience

Here's another game dedicated to one of the pillars of hip-hop.

Released for the Wii and Xbox 360 from the same studio as the Just Dance games, The Hip Hop Dance Experience is a motion-controlled dance game focusing on street dance styles with a tracklist of various hip-hop and R&B hits. Using either the Xbox Kinect or the Wii Remote, player match teh moves on screen to increase their score, with points awarded for accuracy, all while the music video of the active song plays in the background.

With tracks from old schools rappers and modern day superstars and dance moves directed by hip-hop choreographers like Laurieann Gibson and Dave Scott, this game brings hip hop flavor like no other dance game does.

2. DJ Hero 2

DJs are one of the things that helped establish the hip-hop scene as we know it and this game makes players feel like a DJ. One of Harmonix's rhythm games released as a sub-series to the more rock-oriented Guitar Hero, DJ Hero uses the same series mechanics of using the instrument controller (in this case, a turntable) to hit the notes in time to the song to rack up points. The game's soundtrack includes mashups and solo remixes of songs from several different genres including electronic, rock, pop, and of course, hip-hop. Some of the remixes are also done by some well-known DJs including David Guetta, Daft Punk, Grandmaster Flash, and the late DJ AM.

While all of this was established with the first game in the series, the sequel, DJ Hero 2, elevates the idea with more remixes of well-known songs and freestyle sections that allow you to mix sections of a mashup as you see fit. It even trades out the guitar controller functionality of the first game for a second turntable, so two players can mix to the same mashup or battle each other.

1. Jet Set Radio

As said before, hip-hop is not strictly an American thing.

Often regarded as one of the best games on the Sega Dreamcast, Jet Set Radio (or Jet Grind Radio as it is also called) is a 3D platformer with swag not seen in a lot of other games. Players take the role of members of a gang of rollerblading street punks called the GGs, as they roll around Tokyo spraying graffiti, performing skate tricks through the urban environment, competing with other gangs for turf, and running away from some very trigger-happy cops. And that's just the first half of the game.

The art style, from the characters to the setting, is very stylized and colorful and the soundtrack lends just as much energy to the environment, with different genres like electro, funk, breakbeat, heavy metal, and of course, hip hop. The game even includes a couple of New York inspired levels, taking the player back to where hip-hop originated from.

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Did you agree with this list? What video games do you think have a lot of hip-hop attitude? Make your voice heard in the comments below. Thanks for coming!