Remembering some of the greatest hip-hop video games of all time
The world of hip-hop has been packed full of immensely talented lyricists and big personalities over the years. Some of these famous artists haven’t just managed to break into the mainstream by topping the charts, but they’ve also successfully crossed over into the gaming sphere. In fact, for fans of the overall genre and gaming, there have been a number of unforgettable hip-hop video games.
The world of hip-hop has been packed full of immensely talented lyricists and big personalities over the years. Some of these famous artists haven’t just managed to break into the mainstream by topping the charts, but they’ve also successfully crossed over into the gaming sphere. In fact, for fans of the overall genre and gaming, there have been a number of unforgettable hip-hop video games.
Even today, hip-hop video games are accessible on a variety of modern-day gaming platforms. For example, people are still playing options like DJ Hero, which is filled with hits from legendary groups like Beastie Boys, while other popular releases in this area include the likes of the Boom Shakalaka game, a title that features some of the coolest cats in the rap game. These options, plus a range of others, have been inspired by some of the genre’s other notable releases, some of which are fondly remembered by hip-hop lovers around the world.
Of course, not every video game in this area has hit the mark. We’ve certainly been exposed to some rather shoddy releases, with rappers and games developers alike teaming up to create products that appeared to be nothing more than cash grabs. Thankfully, we’ve also been treated to a selection of undeniable masterpieces on a plethora of prominent gaming platforms over the years. Let’s take a look back at some of them below.
Def Jam: Vendetta is a classic title from 2003
When most people think of iconic releases in this category, Def Jam: Vendetta is a title that immediately springs to mind. A classic product from 2003, this wrestling-filled favorite contains some of the rap world’s biggest stars, such as Method Man and Ludacris. With hip-hop connoisseurs able to go to war with their favorite artists in a number of fight-based scenarios, this unforgettable release served up plenty of entertainment. You can grapple with DMX before pulling off a successful knockout blow with Funkmaster Flex. Additionally, the game’s extensive storyline and killer soundtracks added another layer of intrigue to a release that many people will never forget.
50 Cent: Bulletproof is a solid third-person shooter
Famous for producing one of hip hop’s finest-ever, 50 Cent’s foray into the world of gaming also recorded notable success. Released in 2005, 50 Cent: Bulletproof featured the man himself as he aimed to take down a selection of hitmen who were tasked with taking him out. This third-person shooter epic perhaps delivered where many people didn’t expect it to, serving up a gripping storyline that featured some other world-famous stars, such as G-Unit members Lloyd Banks and Young Buck, alongside the likes of Eminem and Dr.Dre.
Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style is a much-loved release
A title that came to the fore in 1999 on PlayStation, Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style is a much-loved product that contained playable characters from the American hip-hop collective that was formed in Staten Island. Similar to the aforementioned Def Jam: Vendetta in some respects, gamers could get firmly stuck into a variety of fighting adventures with their favorite members from the group, with each rapper offering up a different fighting style. Featuring some of Wu-Tang Clan’s greatest tracks and representing a fun gaming package to session, while the game wouldn’t stand up alongside some of today’s detailed releases, it’s impossible to ignore when assessing some of the genre’s most prominent releases.
Some of the other greatest hip-hop video games of all time include the likes of Def Jam: Fight for NY, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and Rap Jam: Volume One.
Ghostface Killah: The iconic Wu-Tang member's serving up with 'Killah Koffee' for. your Keurig
Need even more reasons to love hip-hop and The Culture? How about the fact iconic rap veteran Ghostface Killah has come through with a massive launch of his own Killah Koffee K-pods for your Keurig? Epic.
Need even more reasons to love hip-hop and The Culture? How about the fact iconic rap veteran Ghostface Killah has come through with a massive launch of his own Killah Koffee K-pods for your Keurig? Epic.
Ghostface Killah’s ‘Killah Koffee’ is here for your non-stop grind goals
Want to have your mind blown even more? How about the fact Ghost has both a Supreme Dark Roast and Shaolin Cannoli for your K-cup goals? Giddy up.
Legendary MC. Lyrical genius. A true visionary of verse. Since revolutionizing hip-hop with the Wu-Tang Clan, Ghostface Killah has electrified the world with his words, fashion, and untouchable storytelling style. The best in his field, Ghostface demands the same for his Killah Koffee line and today, announced a new partnership with Keurig to launch two of the brand’s most popular varieties- Supreme Dark Roast and Shaolin Cannoli-to the K-Cup pod format for the first time.
Founded in 2021, and black-owned, Killah Koffee is crafted using 100% Arabica beans and tailored to suit the tastes of everyday coffee enthusiasts, to those seeking a flavorful treat. Starting today, fans can enjoy a mug of the popular Shaolin Cannoli medium roast or a bold Supreme Dark Roast; brewed to perfection right at home.
“Killah Koffee is more than just a product; it’s an extension of my life experiences,” said Ghostface. “In my travels around the world, I have celebrated the music and shared a passion for a good cup of coffee with fans, and through this new partnership with Keurig, we are creating an opportunity to make more memories with an even greater audience.”
Killah Koffee features six proprietary blends including, Marvelous Medium Roast, Marble Cake, Vanilla Milkshake, Supreme Dark Roast, Shaolin Cannoli, and Chocolate Chip Mint, in 12 OZ bags and available on KillahKoffee.com. Supreme Dark Roast and Shaolin Cannoli K-Cup pods are now available in 10-count boxes on Keurig.com.
Whether in bagged form or in the ultra-convenient K-Cup pod format, Killah Koffee embodies the smooth, flamboyant style that only Ghostface Killah can deliver.
For More Information:
Follow Killah Koffee:
https://www.instagram.com/killahkoffee/
Ghostface Killah:
https://www.instagram.com/ghostfacekillah/
Keurig:
Live Nation: $25 deals have you set to see Nas, $NOT and Don Toliver in-person
For the price of a large order from McDonald’s - you can have a life-changing moment with Nas, Snoop Dogg, Wu-Tang Clan, $NOT, Don Toliver and even LL Cool J standing right in front of you. Live Nation is coming through with its major Concert Week giving day ones a chance to secure $25 all-in tickets for nearly 4,000 shows across the country.
For the price of a large order from McDonald’s - you can have a life-changing moment with Nas, Snoop Dogg, Wu-Tang Clan, $NOT, Don Toliver and even LL Cool J standing right in front of you. Live Nation is coming through with its major Concert Week giving day ones a chance to secure $25 all-in tickets for nearly 4,000 shows across the country.
Live Nation’s $25 all-in concert tickets are game-changing
Whether you want to see some certified hip-hop legends or need to slow things down with help from Anita Baker, Boyz II Men or even Earth, Wind & Fire, Live Nation has you covered.
Live Nation today announced the return of Concert Week, offering fans an unbeatable deal: $25 all-in tickets to more than 3,800 shows across North America this year. The annual week-long program kicks off ahead of a robust 2023 summer concert season, getting fans ready to fill their summer months and the rest of their calendar for the year with epic shows and live music from their favorite artists.
The limited-time ticket offer includes over 300 of today’s biggest acts across a wide variety of genres, including: Hip-Hop, Country, Latin, R&B, Metal, Pop, Rock, K-POP, Electronic, Comedy and more. Artists included in Concert Week range from 5 Seconds of Summer, Beck & Phoenix, Bebe Rexha, Big Time Rush, Don Toliver, Fall Out Boy, Janet Jackson, Kountry Wayne, Larry June, Maroon 5, Marca MP, Shania Twain, Snoop Dogg, VALLEY and many more. Concert Week features live events across all venue sizes - from clubs and theaters, to amphitheaters and arenas. See list below for additional artists featured this year.
How Concert Week Works: From May 10-16, fans can visit LiveNation.com/ConcertWeek to see the full list of participating events. Once they’ve selected a show, they should look for the ticket type labeled “Concert Week Promotion,” add the ticket(s) to their cart and proceed to checkout.
How to Find Participating Shows: Fans can filter their search on LiveNation.com/ConcertWeek by participating events, venues, or artists. While on the website, fans can also set the location to the closest city and the site will refresh to only include participating shows nearby.
How to Buy Tickets: Tickets will be available starting with Verizon and Rakuten presales (details below) beginning Tuesday, May 9th. The general onsale for Concert Week will begin Wednesday, May 10th at 10 AM ET through Thursday, May 16th at 11:59 PM, or while supplies last at LiveNation.com/ConcertWeek.
How to Access Verizon Presale: Verizon will offer customers an exclusive presale for Live Nation Concert Week in the U.S. through Verizon Up for select shows beginning Tuesday, May 9 at 10 AM ET through 11:59 PM local time. Verizon customers can unlock access to the presale by linking their Ticketmaster and Verizon accounts (linking can be completed anytime in advance, or during the presale window). For more details visit
Verizon Up.How to Access Rakuten Presale: Rakuten members can purchase presale tickets starting Tuesday, May 9th at 10 AM ET until 11:59 PM ET (while supplies last). It’s free and easy to join Rakuten, and members get access to savings and rewards on the shopping platform, including Cash Back across 3,500+ stores. Sign up for Rakuten here to receive a presale access code, which will be available within the My Account page of Rakuten’s app or website. Terms apply.
How to Access Hilton Honors’ Tickets with Points: Hilton Honors, the fastest-growing hotel loyalty program for Hilton’s 19 world-class brands, makes it easier for members to score tickets to see their favorite artists and live concerts - even during Live Nation’s Concert Week. Members simply need to connect their Hilton Honors and Ticketmaster accounts and use their Hilton Honors Points to pay for all or part of their ticket purchases for select Concert Week shows. For more information about Tickets with Points, please visit the website. The Hilton Honors program is free to join, and travelers can enroll online at hiltonhonors.com.
Need some more details? How about the full line-up of who is involved and taking part in the concert series? Say less.
PARTICIPATING SHOWS INCLUDE:
$NOT
Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls
NMIXX
3 Doors Down
and The Interrupters
The Offspring
5 Seconds of Summer
Fuerza Regida
The Original Misfits
Alejandro Fernández
Garbage & Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds
Outlaw Music Festival feat. Willie Nelson & Family
The All-American Rejects, New Found Glory
Ghost
Pantera
The Get Up Kids & More
Godsmack and Staind
Parker McCollum
Angela Aguilar
Goo Goo Dolls
Pentatonix
Anita Baker
Gov't Mule's Dark Side of the Mule
Pepe Aguilar
Arcangel
Hank Williams Jr.
Pepe Aguilar Presenta Jaripeo Sin Fronteras
Avatar
Hayley Kiyoko
P!NK
Avenged Sevenfold
Hunter Hayes
Quinn XCII
BABYMETAL & DETHKLOK
Incubus
Ray LaMontagne
Bacilos
The Interrupters
Rob Zombie & Alice Cooper
Bad Friends with Andrew Santino & Bobby Lee
It’s Time Feat: Naomi Raine, Tasha Cobbs Leonard,
Rod Stewart
Barenaked Ladies
Natalie Grant, Taya, Tamela Mann, Katie Torwalt
RuPaul's Drag Race
Beartooth & Trivium
Janet Jackson
Sad Summer Fest: Taking Back Sunday, The Maine, PVRIS
Bebe Rexha
Jason Aldean
Sam Hunt
Beck & Phoenix
Jason Leong
Sam Morril
Becky Robinson
Jelly Roll
Santana
Ben Schwartz
Jesse & Joy
Seal
Big Time Rush
Jimmy Carr
Seven Lions
Bill Maher
Jimmy Eat World & Manchester Orchestra
Shania Twain
Boy George & Culture Club with Howard Jones
Jon Pardi
Shinedown
and Berlin
Keith Urban
Slightly Stoopid
Breaking Benjamin
Kevin Hart
The Smashing Pumpkins
Bret Michaels Parti-Gras
KIDZ BOP Kids
Snoop Dogg, Wiz Khalifa, Too $hort & More
Brooks & Dunn
Kountry Wayne
Stassi Schroeder
Bryan Adams
Larry June
Stavros Halkias
Charlie Puth
Leon Larregui
Subtronics
Chelsea Handler
Lewis Black
Summer Block Party Presents Jodeci
The Chicks
Lionel Richie and Earth, Wind & Fire
TARJA
Colin Jost
LL Cool J
TLC & Shaggy with En Vogue and Sean Kingston
Counting Crows
Logic
Tony Baker & KevOnStage
Darius Rucker
Louis Tomlinson
Trey Kennedy
David Spade
Lovett or Leave It
VALLEY
Def Leppard & Mötley Crüe
Luke Bryan
Villano Antillano
Dermot Kennedy
Lynyrd Skynyrd & ZZ Top
Volbeat
Dierks Bentley
Macklemore
W.A.S.P.
Disturbed
Maisie Peters
Walker Hayes
The Doobie Brothers
Måneskin
The Warning
Don Toliver
Man With A Mission
Waterparks
Dream Theater
Marca MP
Weezer
Edén Muñoz
Marco Antonio Solís
Whiskey Myers
Eladio Carrion
Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán
Wizkid
Electric Callboy
Maroon 5
Wu-Tang Clan & Nas
Elvis Costello & the Imposters
Matchbox Twenty
Yellowcard
Fall Out Boy
Miranda Lambert
Young the Giant with Milky Chance
Foreigner
Mudvayne
Yungblud
Nickelback
Zac Brown Band
AND MANY MORE!
MORE TO KNOW:
Concert Week all-in tickets include all fees upfront in the $25 cost.
Any taxes will be added at checkout as applicable to each city, state and venue.
Concert Week all-in tickets are available for select Live Nation events, while inventory lasts.
Nas is going back on tour with the legendary Wu-Tang Clan
It’s a celebration for the rap icon Nas. The hip-hop veteran is lacing back up for another run around the country alongside hip-hop legends Wu-Tang Clan.
It’s a celebration for the rap icon Nas. The hip-hop veteran is lacing back up for another run around the country alongside hip-hop legends Wu-Tang Clan.
Nas and Wu-Tang for the win
Nasir Jones hit up his Instagram page to get fans pumped about another New York State of Mind run. While dates aren’t yet revealed, Nas vowed to see fans see on the road.
“Goin on tour with @wutangclan.
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 ⛽️ ⛽️ ⛽️
Grab tix and see you soon!!”
Wu-Tang Clan's RZA and DJ Scratch talk new music with Ed Lover
New York rap icon RZA and DJ Scratch are far from falling back from the music-making scene. The hip-hop pair chopped it up on Audacy’s 94.7 ‘The Block’ with the legendary Ed Lover to dish on everything from new music to the Big Apple’s rap game.
New York rap icon RZA and DJ Scratch are far from falling back from the music-making scene. The hip-hop pair chopped it up on Audacy’s 94.7 ‘The Block’ with the legendary Ed Lover to dish on everything from new music to the Big Apple’s rap game.
Check out some of the interview highlights and peep the entire chop up session toward the bottom.
[1:06] – DJ Scratch on collaboration with RZA for new album. “RZA had reached out to me in the beginning of the pandemic, back in March 2020 to check on my health and my family, and he was like, ‘I’ve been going through my hard drives, do you still have that Wu-Tang joint? I want to emcee again, but I don’t want to wear both hats. Want to do an album together?’, I’m like, ‘Absolutely.’ I’ve got a whole stash of Wu [songs]…I went and got the heavy pen, the ones that drip the ink, you know what I mean, and carved out some dope lyrics…The foundation of Hip Hop is the DJ and the emcee. I’ve been blessed to do a lot of things in art, but going back to the foundation, I just wanted to do that.”
[4:05] – RZA on why he didn’t want to wear two hats on the new project. “I just wanted to touch the microphone…It just gave me that freedom. Sometimes when you do both, you need eight arms. At this particular phase, I was like, I don’t have to bust my brain like that…My pen just kept flowing…We wanted to take it back to that feeling – People that’s in New York, every Saturday back in the days, channel 5, 3:00 pm the whole hood went in the house and watched ‘Kung Fu Theater’, and when we came outside we were jumping off the benches and fences trying to do those moves – We just wanted to bring back that sonic feeling of Saturday Afternoon Kung Fu…We got our name from a Kung Fu movie.”
[6:56] – Brooklyn and Staten Island, Hip Hop in New York. “The most important thing was, it seemed like when the Wu came through, the whole Roc came through…Hip Hop is New York. Staten Island is one of the last boroughs to get stuck on the map, but now we are on that map forever.”
[9:58] – “With this album, when we started working on it, I was like, let’s keep it at seven. Seven is the god number. Seven is the number of completion. Let’s keep it like that…I’ve got a whole album of unreleased EPMD records.”
[11:42] – RZA on bringing back Wu-Tang: An American Saga on Hulu. “We in the writers room right now, with a great team, putting something crazy together for season three. I can’t wait to share that.”
[14:00] – DJ Scratch on producing the album. “It’s an honor for RZA to allow me to actually produce him. Produce the beats, and produce his vocals as well. I was excited. I was like, who gets to produce a Wu-Tang artist? A full album…This album, hopefully it’s spark our peers to put out new music, because they still got it.”
[16:06] – RZA on inspiring others. “I didn’t go to Hollywood and start scoring films, so I’m the only guy doing it. I wanted people to realize [they] can do it too. Instead of a hip hop movie, or musician movie, I made a musician T.V. show. [There’s] going to be a lot more of those…It’s generational, hip hop is one of the few music that is generational.”