Most MCs talk about how they’re going to mash their opponents, and Electronic Arts, along with Def Jam, is trying to make that a reality with the wrestling game Def Jam Vendetta. Now you can use Ludacris to clothesline Method Man or DMX to piledrive Scarface – all in the convenience of your own home.

Part of the EA Sports Big line (which includes SSX Tricky and NBA Street), Def Jam Vendetta has many of Def Jam’s most popular rappers going at it in the ring. With up to four players simultaneously and more than 1,500 different moves available, the fighting combinations seem nearly endless.

As far as music, you can expect the real deal from Def Jam artists. Through a partnership called EA Trax, Def Jam is providing 18 real songs in the game, six of them new. “We’ll have new DMX, Meth, CNN and Keith Murray,” says Def Jam President Kevin Liles. “We’re trying to use a lot of different artists that have brand recognition and also some new artists.”

Aside from the multiplayer game, a Story mode is available to play solo. Evidently you are a retired underground fighter, but are forced to return to the ring after your boy Manny asks for help against kingpin D-Mob – the person who retired you in the first place. You work your way through the ranks Mortal Kombat-style, fighting more than 45 different characters (including lots of Def Jam artists) in the ring and on side missions. The game’s fast pace is closer to a fighting game than most of the wrestling games out now, with characters jumping, flying and slamming around the ring at crazy speeds.

“I played the demo and I was like ‘Oh shit!’ I had to be down,” says NORE, one of the wrestlers who provides beatdowns in the game. “I’m a gameaholic, be at the crib playing games all the time. It’s a great fighting game.”

NORE also says that his video game counterpart has an uncanny resemblance to himself. “My dead arm in the game is serious, man. They got that out of real life. I swear they were following me around getting footage or something.”

Conspiracy theories aside, Electronic Arts did hook up all the rappers to motion capture equipment. A computer documented the motions as they did their wrestling moves in real life and animators used the information to make, for instance, the video game DMX look like the real Earl Simmons.

Redman, another playable rapper, agrees that the game captures all the rappers well. “It shows our look, our clothes, the details are great. And the action is tight, man. Ain’t nothin’ corny. It’s action packed.”

“Besides,” Redman adds, “I love starting fights and shit.”

Video game music has improved since Ms. Pac-Man, but no one has mistaken those sophisticated bleeps for their favorite radio station. At least until now.

Gaming giant Electronic Arts has created EA Trax, a music department that licenses exclusive cuts for EA games and consults producers to make sure the sound is authentic. One of the first EA Trax-aided games is NBA Live 2003 which features songs from Fabolous and Busta Rhymes, and in-game music by hip-hop producer Just Blaze.

Though licensing music for video games isn’t anything new, actually having music made exclusively for video games is, said EA Worldwide Executive of Music Steve Schnur. “Before it was more like catalog music. I looked at a competitor’s title where they were bragging about having DMX and Luda on there… but all of it was released between 1999 and 2001, songs we’ve all heard before and wore out.”

Luckily EA is working with the various labels to release game music compilations so you won’t have to play to hear the music. Participating labels include Electra, Capitol, Atlantic, Interscope, Dreamworks, MCA, Lava and Island/Def Jam. EA also is looking to do label-driven games including a wrestling title featuring Def Jam rappers.

Just Blaze, a hardcore gamer who once considered making them instead of playing them, thinks that authentic, original game music is a step in the right direction. “I respect [EA], since most companies might license a couple of hip-hop songs, but the music in the rest of the game sounds like techno or some guy in Iowa trying to sound like hip-hop,” he said.

This fall SongPro, Inc. is bringing the noise to GameBoys everywhere. The African-American company is releasing SongPro MCE, a $99 device that lets GameBoy Advance and GameBoy Color users play visually-enhanced MP3s, allowing gamers to peep the album cover, lyrics, and other items while listening. SongPro has partnered with music download giant RioPort, so there should be thousands of songs available, and SongPro will sell enhanced memory packs to save songs on.

For co-founders Mark Bush and Ronald Jones it’s been a long two years from product idea to completion. Jones, an engineer, came up with the SongPro device idea and met with Bush in early 2000 to help with the business side. Unfortunately, the timing couldn’t have been worst: by Spring 2000, because of the economy, people had stopped investing in tech companies. It didn’t help that GameBoy creator Nintendo, not liking the original SongPro MCE design, took them to court. “We persevered, without any money, living on like five dollars a day,” Jones said.

Perseverance paid off: within months SongPro and Nintendo agreed to work together, microchip powerhouse Cirrus Logic came aboard to help with production, and they were able to attract powerful people to their company, including Silicon Graphics co-founder Dr. Marc Hannah.

Furthermore, they’ve gotten Nelly to endorse the product. He’ll be doing commercial spots for the device and, in turn, the company will be sponsoring him on his upcoming tour. “If I would have had the chance to [get involved] in Microsoft when it was first introduced, I wouldn’t be rhyming right now,” Nelly says. “I’m glad to be in on the ground level!”

At some point or other we’ve all played a video game, whether it’s a GameBoy session on a long trip or a couple quarters of Madden 2002 with our boys. Although these games are designed as a mode of entertainment, they still can evoke some serious concerns. A few years ago, some believed that violence in video games was responsible for the rise of violence amongst the youth and now others argue that some of the gaming industry’s portrayals of minorities promote racial stereotypes. Afro Thunder from Midway’s Ready 2 Rumble and Stretch from EA’s popular NBA Street are perfect examples, both fit a typical Black male stereotype: an exaggerated afro, heavy use of Ebonics, and great rap skills.Khameleon Entertainment CEO Frederick Jones (one of the few Black CEOs in the game industry) says that African Americans are being represented poorly. “We all know there are ignorant brothers out there, but the fact is that [game companies] are not making an effort to show African Americans who are more diverse.”

Glenn Chinn, EA’s lifestyle marketing director, admits that there is a tough balance between representing and stereotyping. “I think by us being in the industry, it’s important for us to know what’s going on in the youth culture, and we always try to keep true to the culture of the sport,” he says.

According to Chinn, EA has long supported events such as b-ball tournaments at Rucker Park to keep them in touch with urban culture. The company also hired graf artist Man One to create the mural used in their NBA Street ad campaign. Chinn says that many people, including those in the hip-hop industry, have given positive feedback to the game and the campaign.

As more powerful game systems flood the market, designers are now able to better represent different cultures through high-resolution graphics and sound. In fact, companies such as Electronic Arts and Sega are already beginning to incorporate more diverse Black characters into their major titles. That’s not to say, however, that there never where people of color portrayed within video games but rather that they were never equally represented.

Since Konami’s early ’80s title Track and Field, African Americans have often been distinguished by an oversized afro and pitch-black colors, as opposed to showing the various hairstyles and hues that people of color posses. In game developer’s defense, one reason for such extreme misrepresentations is probably due to the graphic limitations of earlier systems. But even with the power of recent consoles like PlayStation 2 and X-Box, color and representation are still an issue. A recent instance of stereotyping Barret, a character from Square’s Final Fantasy VII on PlayStation. The only African American person in the game, Barret was the only character to curse and use Ebonics. It was considered such a bad representation that a major video game publication responded by lowering the game’s review rating.

Perhaps ignorance of urban culture can be blamed for public relations nightmares like Final Fantasy VII. Yet, for every game linked to individuals that are directly involved in hip-hop (i.e. Activision’s Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style), there are a handful of other titles that cover the culture but have little or no minority involvement. One major reason for stereotyping could be the location of game developers, as many products are created overseas where there may be little knowledge of Black or urban culture.

Sega claims that it was already familiar with urban culture before making its hip-hop inspired game Jet Grind Radio. “We’ve been big fans of the hip-hop scene ever since Wild Style was released,” says Rich Briggs, product manager for Sega of America. “So we already had a basis for the look and feel of the game. It was also important to have Haze [a well-known graffiti artist] on board to contribute the in-game graffiti art since his work has been legendary in the scene.”

Many agree that Jet Grind Radio captured a worldwide hip-hop feel, but oddly enough, the game itself hardly any Black characters — odd for a game based on a Black-created culture. Jones professes: “Everyone knows that tons of Black and Hispanic kids play video games but if they realized how many times their culture is imitated in sports and music — it’s incredible that few games have characters of minority descent.” As with the issue of violence in games, hopefully, open discussion will eventually help alleviate the problem.