The Hollywood Byte #57: Lil Jon

Atlanta-based rapper/producer Lil Jon is one of the playable characters in the first next-generation iteration of the best-selling Def Jam fighting franchise from Electronic Arts and Def Jam. In Def Jam: Icon, Lil Jon comes to life in high definition.

"It's a game that's taking the fighting game genre to a whole nother level," said Lil Jon. "They really put their foot in this one and changed the whole game up. Music is like your weapon in this game. Music is a major part of the game. It's just incredible. The graphics and the detail of the characters are insane as well. They spent a lot of time doing 3D scans of all of the artists into the game. They have everything from our faces to the sneakers to the sunglasses. It's exactly what we'd be wearing. It's dope."

The level of detail that Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 bring to the table impressed the rapper, who spends a lot of his free time playing videogames.

"Man, when I first saw the rough images, I was blown away," said Lil Jon. "The details down to the whiskers on my damn chinny chin chin. It's just crazy that they can put this much detail into something. They even have the way you stand and maybe scratch your head. All of that is incorporated into the game. It's just a whole nother level. I've never seen anything like this."

Lil Jon said that when EA Chicago was developing the game, they asked each artist how they wanted to fight. They also asked if there were any special moves they wanted to do in the game.

"For me, I wanted to do some Dusty Rhodes elbows and stuff like that," said Lil Jon. "I also do some kung fu kicks on your ass. I can't do that stuff in real life, but I can do it in the game. I have this 360-spin kick that's kind of hot."

In addition to being able to play as Lil Jon in the new game, players will be able to listen to his music, as well as music from his artists, like E40. The game's soundtrack includes songs like "Get Low," "Get Krunk," "Go Hard and Go Home," and "Tell Me When to Go Home."

"With the Def Jam: Icon game, you can plug in your iPod or MP3 player and make your own soundtrack for the game," said Lil Jon. "And the characters and game background will be choreographed to whatever song you put in there. If you turn on Yanni or Metallica, whatever you want to put in, the game adapts to that tempo and everything animates to that. It's totally different. You really have to play it to see what I'm talking about."

Lil Jon said that the technology grows every year and it's allowed Def Jam: Icon to integrate the music into a major part of the gameplay.