The Premise
The preconceived notion, and one we can't deny having had ourselves, is that Def Jam Rapstar is simply, rap karaoke. And who would blame skeptics for harboring the thought? Few games cater exclusively to the hip-hop crowd and even fewer fall within the music genre. Get on Da Mic, a title that debuted in 2004 to little fanfare, is the only game we recall with which to draw a parallel. But if Get on Da Mic proved anything, it's that music, no matter how good, can only carry you so far. If you're looking to score gamers in addition to hip-hop aficionados, you are going to need something a bit more engaging. And 4mm Games thinks they have just that.

So we can't blame Rapstar for having a poor (nonexistent) pedigree. But the lack of one affords them the opportunity to act as pioneers in this oft-ignored facet of the greater gamer culture.

The Music
Even though we established that the game isn't just karaoke, music is obviously at the core of the experience. Def Jam Rapstar features music from over 30 years of hip-hop from a variety of artists, not just those that fall under the Def Jam label. In our demo we were able to choose from T.I. "Whatever you like" and "Live your life," Young Jeezy "Put On," Kanye West "Golddigger," Notorious B.I.G. "Hypnotize," Pete Rock & CL Smooth "They Reminisce Over You," and Flo Rida "Right Round."

The visuals are simple and stylized, catering strongly to the vibe of the music. In a fashion similar to SingStar, music videos play in the background during the performance and a sleek black and gold interface allows players to scroll through the video library, watching clips until finding one they want to perform. No set list was revealed, but DLC was confirmed as something planned to keep the library fresh.

Custom beats will also be available, mixed by big hip-hop talent. Freestyle mode will allow users to show off their raw talent to these beats, singing their own lyrics and showcasing their creativity.

The Gameplay
On to the specifics. Def Jam Rapstar not only recognizes pitch, but speech and phoneme recognition software picks up on the tune, timing and accuracy of your words. Simply humming into the mic isn't going to work anymore. We can attest that even in a noisy room the game was able to pick up the performance without issue.

Def Jam Rapstar also integrates the use of the Xbox Vision Camera or PlayStation Eye. This allows players to create and share their own music videos, and in theory, allows them to become a real living Rapstar. After calibrating the camera to drop out the background, players can edit the video to change the location or even add props. But 4mm expects users to get creative enough without the use of the software. Nothing is stopping them from creating a set, complete with carefully chosen attire, real backup dancers and more. Ones style and swagger are key elements into gaining them recognition in the Rapstar community.

Speaking of community‚

The Community
The team behind Rapstar wants the title to become a medium for aspiring artists to promote themselves. And to do that they introduced an online portal to the mix. While the team's seamlessly integrated social networking application‚ sounds a bit to PR-speak for comfort, it's hard to come up with a better phrase for what 4mm implemented.

During the demo we watched the player edit and upload a 30-second clip of their performance by simply entering their email address into XBLA. After that, the video was automatically uploaded to their individual profile online.

The web aspect is where the real tribute to hip-hop culture lives. Every video uploaded is tagged by location and paired with a score. This lets the community easily search out the hottest rap star in Queens or Brooklyn. Better yet, the top contenders in any location can challenge each other to rap battles. It's even possible to have an email sent to you when someone beats your score, fully engrossing you in the Rapstar experience even when you are away from the console. The goal is to facilitate interaction between local hip-hop communities, although the game obviously is tailored for a global scale.

Some performances will be promoted and placed in a queue to play on the main page. This allows players a chance to craft themselves as a brand, getting fans amped up about an upcoming "show." Here other registered users can score you on your style, swagger, personality and everything else you can imagine. It's also possible to form crews and have crew wars based on your teams collective score. Higher scores equal more bragging rights over other crews on the site.

Def Jam Rapstar is slated to ship this winter. If you are a fan of hip-hop, rap and have a competitive spirit, this one is worth keeping on your radar.

Def Jam Interactive is teaming up with game developers 4mm Games and Terminal Reality to release the first, full-fledged hip-hop music game. And we don't mean a game where famous rappers fight each other (see previous Def Jam games "Def Jam: Vendetta," "Def Jam: Fight For NY," "Def Jam: Icon").

"Def Jam has had success with video games before, but the games were only peripherally involved with hip-hop," said Matt Emery, an associate producer at Terminal Reality, during a demonstration at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). "They were good games, but Def Jam came to us and said they wanted to make something that was more about hip-hop."

And while "Def Jam Rapstar" obviously boasts Def Jam in its title, it's not limited to Def Jam music. "We've already cleared hundreds of tracks," said Paul Eckstein, another producer at Terminal Reality. "The question is not if we can get music -- of course, we can. It's about what is the right music to get and what songs are fun to play."

He added, "And you're not going to see Vanilla Ice in here. It's about 'real hip-hop' and the 30-year tradition of hip-hop." The tracklisting shown at the presentation included "Put On" by Young Jeezy, "Gold Digger" by Kanye West, "Hypnotize" by Notorious B.I.G. as well as T.I.'s "Whatever You Like" and "Live Your Life."

Emery and Eckstein performed "Live Your Life," which had both of them rapping together, and even singing Rihanna's vocal part, while the official music video played in background. And unlike the other music games out on the market, which measure just your vocal pitch, "Def Jam Rapstar" will note whether or not you've got your lyrics in check. "The intention isn't to make you use the exact same accent as the original performer but to make sure you know the words," Emery said. "We don't want you to just hum into the microphone like you can in other games. We also grade you on timing. And obviously when you're singing, we grade you on hitting the right pitch."

But the game isn't just about whose tracks you can cover accurately; "Def Jam Rapstar"- aims to be the real thing for aspiring emcees. Not only will players be able to rhyme along to their favorite hip-hop songs, but they'll be able to record and share videos of themselves doing it using the cameras available for the current crop of consoles. While it certainly could be just a fun, karaoke-style party game to enjoy with intoxicated pals, the game-makers believe that "Def Jam Rapstar" could actually make, well, rapstars.

"The game at its core is about hip-hop, but the other thing is that it's about you," Emery said. "It's not about playing other rappers and trying to be them; you're the star. There are no avatars in this game. It's about your persona and the way you rap, the way you look, how you move."

"Def Jam Rapstar" promises to support would-be hip-hop artists with all the tools they need for potential stardom. If you don't want to cover a song, the game comes with pre-made instrumental tracks so that rappers can create their own rhymes. It will also include a video editor, letting players star in their own music videos. We weren't able to see all the video features just yet, but you'll be able to edit sound and video effects (for example, you can change the background so that you won't have to be seen rapping on the sofa). Then, via the console's interface, the videos can be uploaded to the game's community website, where other people can view and rate them.

"This can be an opportunity for new artists, a new A&R type of thing," Eckstein said. "People like Kevin Liles and Russell Simmons can go on here and search for talent. So if people don't have the money to buy 1,000 CDs and ship them out to different labels, labels can use this as an access point for talent."

And if you want to take friends along your rise to fame, you can form a crew, which can also be ranked on the website. "You can affiliate yourself with a geographical location or a group or friends," Emery explained. "It's about representing your group or wherever you're from. And there will be a lot of community features built around that concept, which is obviously very hip-hop."

Another aspect of hip-hop that the game developers plan to feature is competition. They expect that the game and its publicly displayed leaderboards will encourage players to challenge each other to rap battles. Due to the limited online technology of consoles at the moment, competitors won't be able to duke it out simultaneously, but they'll be able to send videos back and forth and let the people decide who wins. "The online space isn't just about your score anymore," Emery said. "It's about you being evaluated by your peers. So it's really like a hip-hop American Idol."

Ultimately, the game is as serious as you want it to be, and the developers just want to give hip-hop enthusiasts the means to show off their skills.

"Def Jam Rapstar is about you being the star and whatever tools we can provide to enhance your experience," Emery said. "You can sit there in your basement and have just a single-player game experience. Or you can connect with the community and share the music and your performances with each other." "It's almost criminal that [a hip-hop music game] hasn't been done before," Eckstein added. "Hip-hop is such a popular genre that this game has the potential to reach out to all types of different people -- anywhere from the gamers to hip-hop fans to Mom and Dad."

Though we're not sure quite we'd like to see our parents rap-battling online, you can test your own rhyming skills when "Def Jam Rapstar" is released this winter for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

 

(Incidentally, I am the whitest and least gangsta person on the planet. Seriously,Vanilla Ice looks like Tupac next to me. So if my choice of rap slang is horribly out of date, I apologize.)

Developed by Terminal Reality (no, seriously, Terminal Reality, the guys who did the Ghostbusters game) Rapstar's game presentation is very similar to Sony's SingStar series. Lyrics appear on the screen over the song's video, and a bouncing ball prompts you to hit the words. The modes I saw were also similar: Solo, Battle and Duet. I watched King rap along to T.I.'s "Live Your Life" featuring Rihanna. Yes, you can sing the male or female part.

The game judges you on pitch, timing and the lyrics. At the end of your song, your performance will be judged and you'll be given rankings such as "Rough" and "Insane." I believe these are positive rankings, but again I refer you to that "Vanilla Ice" note above.

While all of this might sound like a straight-up karaoke game featuring rappers, Def Jam Rapster is much more ambitious than that. King hinted that the game would have a Story mode which would unlock new goodies as you played through it, but could say no more.

Def Jam Rapstar

That's okay. What he could talk about was intriguing enough. 4mm says the game is about "Hip Hop, You and the Community." 4mm is putting a real effort to get amateur rappers into the game. For this reason, the game also comes with a number of raw tracks that gamers can use to create their own rap songs.

Rapstar also works with the Xbox Live Vision Camera and PlayStation EyeToy. 4mm says the game does not require a camera, but they believe it's a big part of the experience. Rapstar allows you to capture videos of yourself rapping, dancing and generally goofing around as you perform. Much like the Xbox 360 game You're in the Movies, the camera snaps a shot of your background so that you can replace your living room with a beach, crowds, a boat and other selectable backgrounds. You can also add other objects to the background to customize your look.

Incidentally, the developers is aware of the problems that plagued You're in the Movies, and say they are working on making Rapstar much more solid.

You can record videos of yourself rapping against your custom backdrop. You can only capture 30 seconds of the songs at time for copyright reasons, though. As to the ability to edit videos, I could only get a "no comment" out of the team. Whatever that means. However, 4mm did confirm that you can upload your video it to the Def Jam Rapstar homepage. Which brings us to the Community portion of Rapstar.

Rapstar is promising some pretty cool sounding community features. You can visit the website and rate music videos, including other rapper's customized raw tracks. You can also create your own "crew" and have rivalries with other rappers online. The developers plan to encourage gamers to keep coming back to defend their honour--the webpage will send out a message to inform a crew when a rival has beaten their score.

One of the more intriguing features for those who don't or can't rap with the superstars is the ability to promote. You can promote other rappers and increase their popularity. If you do, your ranking as a promoter will increase.

Many of Rapster's final features are not officially confirmed, and that includes hardware. I can tell you my demo had two high quality Sennheiser microphones. They were wireless too, hallelujah. 4mm says it is looking at a variety of bundles for Rapstar, both with and without mikes.

The roster of songs has also not been officially disclosed, so 4mm couldn't comment as to who and how many. They did say that despite the name, Rapstar will not just have Def Jam artists. King says that 4mm is currently undergoing "multi-label clearing with hundreds of songs." That's not to say there will be hundreds of song on the game disk, though King did say that they were trying to get in quite a range of songs, with male and female artists. Artists featured in my demo included Notorious B.I.G., Flo-Rida and Kanye West. The game's fact sheet also mentions Young Jeezy.

4mm is also trying to secure a range of songs from the history of rap. When I asked how far back they were going, King said "the beginning." DLC is definitely planned as well.

As anyone who is into gaming and Hip Hop will tell you, rap is waaaay underserved in the gaming scene, unless you're hearing it in the background of NBA Live. SingStar and Rock Band have some sort of rap-ish tracks here and there, but full-on rap game have been few and far between, and well, sub-par (The less said about Get on Da Mic the better). Def Jam Rapstar is coming on to the scene aggressively, looking to give rap and gamers what they need.

Def Jam Rapstar will be released winter 09 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

-Jason MacIsaac.

Jason MacIsaac is the Executive Editor of Elecplay.com. He's holding out for a SingStar They Might Be Giants edition.

Def Jam Rapstar, created in partnership with Def Jam Interactive, 4mm Studios and Terminal Reality, aims to change all that. I'll have a more detailed write-up of the game's philosophy and features after E3, but I wanted to talk about my hands-on time with the game earlier today. The demo had eight songs available, with Kanye West's "Golddigger" and T.I.'s "Whatever You Like" amongst them. In terms of presentation, Rapstar's not so different than other karaoke-style games. Lyrics appear on-screen with timed prompts and players are scored according to how their performance matches the track. Videos of the song accompany the performance and attempts are graded as Insane, Rough, Weak, etc. For my battle with 4mm co-founder Jamie King, I chose Pete Rock & CL Smooth's classic T.R.O.Y.

Picking up a wireless mic, I watched King rhyme over CL Smooth's slice-of-life couplets when suddenly it became my turn. I won't lie to you, readers: I've known this song by heart for more than a decade now but I flubbed a few lines. I squeaked by King by less than 1,000 points at the end of our battle. We dueled it out another time and I destroyed King, beating him by more than triple his score. Hip-hop's competitive at its core and the braggadocio energy of the music moved through me in a weird way on the second go-round. It's not something I've ever experienced in Rock Band or Guitar Hero, where the emphasis is on cohesion and complementing each other. Even Singstar, a game with a similar Vs. mode I've battled friends on, has never felt like more than a goof during a party than a contest. On Rapstar, I wanted to crush King and, stranger still, I knew I could.

Looking back on our duel, I remember trying to imbue the lines of one of my favorite all-time songs with my own stamp, my own feeling. It was because I felt I owned this song, could attach it to certain memories. It's a reflex that most karaoke games work off of but, again, hip-hop fans haven't had much to turn to in that regard. 4mm's overarching point about Def Jam Rapstar is that there's a hugely underserved audience that would flock to the game because Rock Band and its ilk don't cater to their tastes. A wide-open space in the market isn't enough to assure them success but with a well-curated tracklist and other compelling features, Def Jam Rapstar might strongarm other music games into making room for a new King of Rock.

The recently formed 4MM Games, comprised of two Rockstar co-founders Jamie King and Gary Foreman, recently announced a new project in collaboration with Def Jam Interactive. The game, entitled, Def Jam Rapstar at first glance seems like a Karaoke Revolution or Singstar-style flow to the beat and pitch of the music. However, the gameplay itself is not the real catcher with this game. It's about the networking

.

Every day, social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook gain more and more popularity. Console companies are jumping on board with connectivity through these social networks. We saw Microsoft announce integration with their console and both of the aforementioned websites, while Nintendo's DSi will support the latter of the two. Def Jam Rapstar continues that trend by creating its own social network and launching a site that will give players the opportunity to be heard. At least, that is the current hope of the developers, as they promise to bring us that sort of interaction amongst peers.

Much like Youtube helped bring video blogs into the mainstream and launch the careers such as the Back Dorm Boys and the 2006 inerrnet sensation, Little Loca (of course there are many more, and some current, but each of these stars was able to secure great deals based on their web personas). The creators of this game hope to create a web-based sort of a talent search to accompany their upcoming game.

User generated content has been popular since the days of creating your own levels in Doom, and was recently made easier with Little Big Planet. This game, however, aims to start the same sort of user-driven community through the sharing of filmed performances over backing hip-hop tracks with other gamers and fans of rap.

Many of the backing tracks are commercially produced hit songs, while others in the near future will be freestyle beats produced by rap industry professionals. Players will film their performances via the PlayStation Eye or Xbox 360's Live Vision camera, then upload them directly from the console to a website that will be launched at a later, unspecified time. The team also expressed interest in Microsoft's Project Natal, but nothing has been said (and the peripheral appears to be far from a release date of any kind).

Although nothing was specified, it is easy to see their social video voting website becoming the grounds for in-game contests amongst users. It was also noted by the developers that videos do not necessarily have to be rap performances. Users may be able to do commentaries over music, or talk about the current state of rap and upload them directly to the site. The upcoming site also contains quick links that allow the videos to be added to a variety of already-established social networks.

It is impossible to know just how well the game and its accompanying site will do after launch, but if the Rockstar co-founders play their cards right, they may just start a new trend in the rhythm-based videogame genre.

Some companies decide to show games at E3. Other companies, like 4mm Games, decide to take a small set of E3 attendees, by Rolls-Royce, to a penthouse a mile away from the Los Angeles Convention Center. Several developers formerly from Rockstar games have brought in TV producers, venture capitalists and others, to try their hand at the music/rhythm genre, which has been out there for a while but has certainly never been done in the way they had planned to do it.

The game is Def Jam Rapstar, in association with Def Jam Interactive (not Def Jam Records). It's not affiliated with the EA Def Jam fighting game series either. It is an effort to take the stale hip-hop genre and, through judicious use of Internet functions, produce a game that reflects and enhances the entire hip-hop culture and then rapidly pull out releases based on other genres. If what they showed me so far is any indication, they're well on their way to doing this.

Glitzy lights reveal a short seven-song demo featuring the Notorious B.I.G., Flo Ride, Pete Rock, T.I. and Kanye West. None are confirmed for the final game ‚ actually, no songs have yet been confirmed for the final game, as the team plans to work on figuring out the best set of songs to attract a wide variety of players. They promised a "competitive" number of songs, with massive DLC support after launch. The interface is slick, with bits of the music video representing each selection, and nice glitzy light towers in the background. Picking a song at random because I am exceptionally white and am not familiar with any of the songs, I am shown Def Jam Rapstar's Duel mode.

I neatly got served. Trying to face the game like I face a Rock Band vocal chart that I'm not familiar with, I warbled my way through the song in a panic while Kanye West's music video showed how it was done even better than the game's producer standing right beside me. The game's scoring system doesn't handle like Rock Band's. Not only does it use phoneme analysis to make sure you're saying the right words, but it also follows extremely tight per-word timings. While the occasional sung sections are done in the normal karaoke fashion, the rapping that represents the vast majority of each song is done by following a bouncing ball that links from marker to marker. To say this is confusing to a player used to a linear motion of words is an understatement, though it was reasonably representative of how tight the word timings are and would be for scoring. As in Rock Band, though, the system judges more and more tightly as you raise the difficulty level. The exact scoring system may be changing, but it went up with a combo to a 12x score multiplier per note.My attempt produced a score of 3,000 compared to the developer's 60,000. Having just gotten served, my humiliation had to be made even worse, as the video was quickly put up online ‚ as in, on the Web. As the producer showed, this is as easy as selecting a choice 30-second clip, putting a name on it, and going on to the next song. The game uploads the file entirely in the background. The custom site then receives your upload and puts it up on a YouTube-style service, allowing for the rating of videos, geotagging of players so you can see who's best in your neighborhood, and full comment functionality. This video upload feature will also allow players to challenge one another; each makes his or her attempt (this doesn't have to be at the same time), and the winning player is shown off. The video support even offers a chroma-key function, where you take a photo of the background around you and record yourself into various clips, such as boats or the beach, to help your video clip feel more like an authentic hip-hop video.

Def Jam Rapstar's online functionality will even extend to the introduction of clans and clan challenges, where each selects a person to see who has the better rhymes. Your position in the ranking system is at stake during these challenges, so you should make your selection carefully.

The game is planned for a "T" rating, using the music videos of songs to provide cleaned-up edits. The current beta shows the first letter of each curse word, but the developers indicated that this would likely be removed.

The plan is to have localizations for many countries, using famous rappers from the corresponding country. When asked if songs from foreign releases would be added to the U.S. DLC selections ‚ a planned feature for the Japanese release of Rock Band ‚ the devs admitted that no one had given it any thought yet.

4mm Games has a very ambitious goal and hopes to produce a game that will let players create a hip-hop culture of their very own making. The developers have taken many existing ideas to new levels and put them together into a very authentic-feeling hip-hop work. If the current product pans out solidly into the final release with enough polish and quality song choices, 4mm could have a major hit on its hands.

During E3, The Koalition team got scooped up and taken to a penthouse to preview the game personally. The 7 Dawg will tell you that he completely annihilated me (Swiff) in a battle on the Young Jeezy hit ‚ (Video will hopefully be available soon). However that's only because this build of the game didn't have much selection yet, and we all know that I'm all about my East Coast and UK rap.

That's where Rapstar will please everyone, because the way it was explained to us is that there is going to be a vast selection of different styles included in Rapstar. They are grabbing up every classic Hip Hop song they can think of, even ol skool that may have not had an official video. They will compensate this with adding exclusive concert footage, so even if there was a classic Hip Hop song that deserves to be added to the Rapstar library, but has no visuals or video, they can still make it happen.
It's clear that even once Def Jam Rapstar has shipped, that the game will be consistently expanded to include fresh new cuts for people to enjoy.

So just how great is the player interaction in Def Jam Rapstar? Well let me ensure you, they didn't call this game Rapstar for nothing. This game is designed to really make you feel like a superstar. Not only does the game have the ability to capture your audio renditions of all the available music videos in the game, but it will also allow you to capture your own music video for each track.

Doing so will then allow you to upload this to Def Jams designated website feature (which will basically be Rapstar's version of Youtube), this will ensure that Rapstar will be heavily community orientated. There will even be charts so you can see who is. This week's hottest Rapstar.

To go even further, you wont even be limited to the provided music videos offered to you. Def Jam Rapstar will feature exclusive beats from some of Hip Hop's biggest producers, allowing all Def Jam Rapstar owners to lay their own vocals on them and share across the community.

To summarize, This is not just Singstar with a Def Jam logo slapped on, full of Hip Hop music. This is a legitimate effort of an interactive Hip Hop game, built from the group up with the Hip Hop community in mind. Not only that, but 4mm and Def Jam interactive are going the extra mile to ensure that every type of Hip Hop fan will be happy. As one of few UK editors on The Koalition, I am happy to say that they are even looking into pull some international music for the game. Rapstar has some excellent and creative solutions, and we should all be looking forward to more on this game as the months go on up until it's release.

Go 'head get down

Def Jam Rapstar gives players a chance to get on the mic and test their hip-hop mettle alongside some of rap's biggest names - and trust me when I say that there's something for everyone. While contemporary artists such as Kanye West and Young Jeezy are in full effect, players will also be treated to legendaries such as Notorious B.I.G. and Big Daddy Kane himself. It doesn't matter if your flavor is Flo Rider or T.I.: this ever-expanding library of hip-hop heavyweights has to be seen to believed.

Def Jam Rapster is similar to Rock Band and Singstar as far as the vocal presentation goes, but the timing, pitch and pacing of each word, lyric and line is taken into expert consideration for each artist's distinct style. For example, going from West's "Gold Digger" to Biggie's "Hypnotize" is a drastic, but extremely fluid transition that keeps the rappers' separate styles, pitches and tempos consistent, making each song a completely new experience. Aside from tackling the hip-hop scene on your own, Def Jam Rapstar also totes what's probably my favorite feature: rap battles. With two mics, would-be-wordsmiths can switch off from verse to verse on any selected song in lyrical fight for bragging rights. Each battle ends with Rapstar judging teach players' timing and lyrical prowess, and rating their MC skills accordingly.

Aside from its astounding line of rap legends, Def Jam Rapstar utilizes plenty of peripherals that truly make you feel like you're part of a genuine hip-hop experience. During my tenure with Rapstar, I was able to capture myself via the Xbox 360's camera, then later edit my footage into a mini music video. From chroma-keying your living room background into a tropical beach to adding in lights and animated crowds for extra effect, Def Jam Rapstar can make your studio apartment feel like Madison Square with just a few clicks of your controller. One of the coolest features is the option to upload your finished video to the Rapstar community website via Xbox Live as soon as you finish recording it, allowing users to view, comment and rank your performance.

It's not just about the music...

Going even further into the community aspect, 4mm hopes that players will utilize this personalized aspect of Rapstar to create their own crews, costumes, rivalries, and even their own rhymes. Def Jam Rapstar comes packed with an assortment of original tracks, allowing gamers to lay down fresh rhymes for community approval. You think you're the next Hova? Step up to the mic and prove it!

With over thirty years of hip-hop history present - not to mention confirmed DLC to keep your playlist fresh - Def Jam Rapstar is turning out to be a must-own for rap fans old and new. B-boys and girls alike, be sure to keep your eyes peeled as Rapstar is scheduled to drop during this Winter season!

Its 2009, and hip-hop as a genre has continued to grow and expand to markets and demographics beyond what anyone could have expected when DJ Hollywood spit his first rhyme in the early 70s. Social networking like Twitter and Facebook is in its prime, making it easier and faster to share experiences with friends and people who probably don't care.

Enter Def Jam Rapstar, the first announced project by 4mm Games, a publisher formed by founding members of the now legendary Rockstar Games. Developed in conjunction with Terminal Reality (yes, of current Ghostbusters fame), Def Jam Rapstar is more than a game -- it's an ambitious platform that merges performance and social networking in an attempt to build a massive online community of wannabe emcees.

We had a chance to check out an early build of the game in Def Jam Interactive's private Los Angeles Penthouse suite last week, and came away impressed with the vision for Def Jam Rapstar.

Boiled down to its bare bones, Def Jam Rapstar is a game where you pick up a microphone and rap along to your favorite songs. Playable in the demo build we saw was a handful of hip-hop tracks, ranging in both style and era, from T.I.'s "Live Your Life" to Notorious B.I.G.'s "Hypnotize." When performing a track, the music video for the song appears on the screen, with a karaoke-style lyric delivery system that was split between two players when played competitively or cooperatively. 

Impressive was how the game not only picked up timing of your delivery, but it has what appeared to be spot-on phoneme detection, picking up individual words we spoke into the mic. You simply can't expect to deliver Biggie's classic line a sloppy drunk and get away with it. If you're worried about the speed of delivery (rhymes often come fast and furious), Def Jam Rapstar is constantly displaying a second line of rhymes, faded below the one currently being delivered. Even when I only had a vague grasp of the lyrics, this was a huge help, and knowing how they were delivered and keeping on the beat was more than enough to follow along.

For songs with hooks and other singing parts -- like Rihanna's vocals on "Live Your Life" for instance -- the game will also judge you on your pitch as part of your end score, where applicable.

If we stopped there, it would be easy to write the game off as Singstar Young Jeezey. But that's only part of the experience Def Jam Rapstar is trying to deliver. The title will utilize your console's camera (the EyeToy and Vision Camera for PlayStation and Xbox 360, respectively) and record your entire performance. Once finished, you'll have the opportunity to instantly upload 30 seconds (selected by the player) to the Def Jam Rapster server, where it will be viewable for all to view.

The Def Jam Rapstar online landing page was already working when we saw it, and we were able to see the system in the action. Once uploaded, it appears on the Rapstar community site, along with detailed information about the performance. This will even include location, as the system features geo-tagging, which will allow you to sort and be grouped with emcees in your area. The site will contain a host of features, including video and user ratings, as well as the ability to create a "crew," a group of emcees that could be likened to a clan.

This brings us to a major focus of the game's competitive rap battles among the community. While you can battle head-to-head locally, the Def Jam Rapstar site will be where all of the action happens. You can attempt to rock a better performance than your friend, someone else in the community, even someone in your area. Def Jam Rapstar will offer real-time updates if you wish, via email or text message, letting you know if your performance has been bested by a rival emcee. (Side note: Prior to Rock Band 2's release this was a feature Harmonix mentioned would be included in the game's "Battle of the Bands" mode, but was never delivered.)

Because the Def Jam Rapstar page is "in the cloud," so to speak, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 owners will be able to compete to best each others' scores. In this way, it may be one of the first cross-platform titles of this generation.

We were also shown the game's post-production‚ which put things like a crowd and lights into the video with the performers. The props added to the game will vary based on performance. If you nail a particularly high-scoring track, you'll have access to fancier and bigger effects, like a larger, rowdier crowd for instance. There's also some potentially neat chroma-key effects planned for the game, allowing players's moving images to be isolated and put in front of a backdrop.

We were shown a beach scenario, which wasn't quite up to par, but showed promise; there was a bit of clipping, the software not entirely recognizing the images properly. 4mm tells us they're still working out the tech, and they're confident they'll nail it down, despite the fact that it may not be technically possible with the resolutions of the console's cameras. (Side note #2: Speaking of tech and cameras, 4mm's Nick Perrett answered our question before we asked -- yes, they're actively looking to see how they could utilized Microsoft's Natal technology, as well as Sony's planned motion controls.)

As far as the game's track listing is concerned, it looks like the plan is to leave no stone in the hip-hop community unturned. Because the "Def Jam" in Def Jam Rapstar is tied to Def Jam Interactive and not directly to the record label, the game's track listing won't be tied to Def Jam artists. When the game ships, artists representing everything from mainstream, old school, underground and more should find a place on the track list. Downloadable content is also planned, as are a handful of original beats perfect for freestyling.

The simple act of picking up a mic to sing and rap along with a hip-hop artists is a blast. Some of these songs were written with head-nodding and getting a party hot in mind. In a few of the tracks we saw played, the entire room got into the action, singing along and even dancing.

With games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band already the digital life of the party for one segment of users, Def Jam Rapstar fills a hole in videogame entertainment that's long been overlooked. The game is schedule for a winter release, so plan your next house party accordingly.

And while karaoke games are normally seen as a bit naff, something for young girls and drunks, I'd been secretly looking forward to it all week. Not just because I'm partial to a bit of rap on the side, but also because I got the impression from the people involved - former Rockstar execs and Def Jam records - that the project was serious.

And that's exactly the impression I got walking away at the conclusion of the demonstration, at which we spoke with 4mm founder Jamie King and Warner Music Group Executive Vice President Kevin Liles (who is also head of Def Jam Interactive).

Rapstar is the combination of two things: 4mm's desire to carry the same torch its founders did at Rockstar by taking modern culture seriously (not to mention having a genuine appreciation of it), and to, as 4mm founder Jamie King puts it, "be a response to a market that is not being catered for".

The mechanics of the game will be familiar to, well, almost everyone, as it follows the same structure as SingStar, Lips, Rock Band and Guitar Hero: World Tour. Lyrics and coloured bars appear on stage, you sing/rap to match the pitch and tone of the original, and you're scored on your performance. No surprises there.

But where Rapstar looks to change the game is in everything else about the title. Where SingStar presents itself to a specific market, Rapstar is the anti-SingStar, which looks to deliver that same experience (it's even got the same community features and 30-second trailers as SingStar's PS3 version) only with a front-end aimed at hip-hop fans.

It's community features will support battles. Users can select which 30 seconds of their performance they'd like uploaded to the website (SingStar's doesn't yet allow that choice, though that feature is coming soon), and when uploaded, can trigger text messages to be sent to competitors/friends if a high score is broken. And, in a strong sign of how seriously the cultural and musical side of this is being taken, Def Jam will be keeping an eye on those performances.

"I wanna find the next DMX...in Japan", says Liles. "But I can't spend a year there lookin' for the motherfucker". He'll be urging all Rapstar players to keep an ear to the ground, and if they know of any half-decent MCs, to make sure their performances are uploaded on the website (which will also support freestyle clips).

For all the game's mechanical strengths, though (and it appears up to the job of tracking your rapping), these music games live and die on the strength of their tracklist. We only saw seven songs today, from artists ranging from TI to B.I.G. to Kanye West, but Liles stresses that those may not make the final release, as around 400 tracks have been licensed, and over the next few months it'll be a matter of sorting through them and finding the right mix for the retail release.

After that, of course, King says there'll be a bevy of downloadable content, and that both the retail package and subsequent downloadables will cover all kinds of hip-hop content, from old to new, mainstream to underground, Def Jam artists to rappers outside of the label's roster. And after that? The 4mm boss says Rapstar is just the beginning of a long-running collaboration with Def Jam, which will see the release of "a number of different games".

Rapstar is due later this year on the 360, PS3 and Wii. As an interesting footnote, the developers of the title were unveiled for the first time today in the game's opening sequence, and they are Terminal Reality. Yes, the guys who just made The Ghostbusters game.