Rock Band’s back catalog, as I understand it, has been good. We’ve had The Who, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Boston, Judas Priest, the Smashing Pumpkins and a plethora of other artists making up the catalogue. It’s all been a mixture of classic rock, power-pop and some of the newer ‘indie’ stuff from bands like The Fratellis. And that’s been fine. They’re all rock songs.
Snoop Dogg isn’t though. Why is he turning up at the Rock Band party then? Hit the jump for more…
It’s all down to, as he might say, the bling-bling. Or the blizzle, or something. In other words, he’s signed a deal with MTV, who owns Harmonix, who happen to make Rock Band. Aside from his own new show on the entirely-nothing-to-do-with-music-these-days TV network, Snoop is also releasing his new album on MTV’s music label. Put two and two together. Snoop wanted a finger in every one of MTV’s pies, and he’s got it, so Rock Band is getting Doggified, as it were.
I’m going to give up trying to emulate the lingo because it’s nigh-on impossible to do so without saying it to myself in my head and sounding really frickin’ stupid. So, I’ll let the man himself sum up what’s going on:
“When [MTV Networks Music/ Films/ Logo Groups President] Van Toffler and I sat down boss to boss, a global quintuple threat takeover was masterminded. As the world of entertainment keeps changing, we felt it was the right time to let Snoop Dogg back on MTV so we could continue to run thangs with music, movies, DVDs and bring hip-hop to ‘Rock Band.’”
That would be the natural evolution, of course. Bringing rock music to Rock Band is so last week. It’s all about bringing hip-hop to a game about performing in a rock group. That’s just how MTV rolls. (I’m doing the lingo thing again…)
While I’d love to complain about the cold-hearted, capitalistic souls of huge corporations like EA and MTV, it’s futile. As much as I’d love to whine about the fact that everyone at MTV is a douchebag since the network embodies the spirit of everything that has nothing to do with music what-so-frickin’-ever there’s really no point.
For some stupid reason or another, stupid hip-hop is coming to stupid Rock Band. Stupid stupid stupid stupid. It’s all stupid.
Snoop Dogg, MTV Announce Global Deal… – MTV via 1UP
Popularity: 1% [?]
I admit it shouldn’t really be on Rock Band, but the pioneers of hip-hop do occasionally churn out an awesome bassline/drumbeat or two. And Snoop’s certainly among the greats. As long as they keep 50 Bent and any of the other modern scene no-hopers out of the way, I’d be happy to get some hip-hop DLC. If they brought out a Biz Markee pack I’d snap that up in an instant!
The only real “hip hop” that I think would really fit on Rock Band is RunDMC’s “Walk This Way” with Aerosmith. Mostly because it’s technically a rock song. Even the song by the Beastie Boys that comes with the game is not fun to play at all.
What about censorship? They already sanitize existing songs, so how much of the tracks are going to be left?
Also, I can’t wait for a plastic turntable peripheral!!!!
This is called a complete fail.
Let’s hope they don’t do this in Brutal Legend