Despite being the biggest genre in the world, and practically dictating the direction of pop culture, it’s been a long time since a hip-hop-oriented video game emerged. Sure, Fortnite has used “shoot” and invited Young Thug, Travis Scott, and others have participated in virtual concerts but surprisingly, there haven’t been many video games that are directly informed by hip-hop.
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Def Jam Vendetta and Def Jam: Fight For NY became cult classics over the years that, unfortunately, haven’t been revamped or remastered for new consoles. However, there have been many pleas for its return. Def Jam even hinted at it in recent years.
Def Jam: Fight For NY boasted characters like Snoop Dogg, Redman, Method Man, Busta Rhymes, and Ice-T. The Rhyme Pays MC took to Twitter where he co-signed recent calls for Def Jam to remake the video game series for new gaming consoles. “Gamer Stuff: The one game they need to ReBoot,” he tweeted. “Would be a huge hit all over again.”
Def Jam: Fight For NY served as the sequel to Vendetta. Released in fall 2004, it was available on XBox, Playstation 2, and GameCube, though the latter had missing elements that were exclusive to the other two platforms.
Last year, Kevin Liles also hinted at the game’s return, so maybe, we could expect to see a re-release in the future.