How to play Def Jam Rapstar without saying the N-word

Def Jam Rapstar is the first game absolutely dedicated to hip hop, and will feature over 40 songs, proprietary voice recognition, and a community video sharing feature (like YouTube, only for amateur rappers... or, like YouTube). We don't doubt that it'll be a hit, and we're actually pretty excited to give it a play. There's just one thing...

You know... that word. It's censored in the game as "N---," leaving it up to the player to decide what to say (you can be silent without penalty). If you're like me, as in, require sunscreen when sitting next to an energy-saving light bulb, there's no way you can drop the N-bomb without looking like a complete ass. It just isn't worth it.


Above: I'm not B.I.G.

But if you spend every other beat contemplating centuries of racial tension, your spitting will be far from dope, which is why awkward white kids everywhere should prepare in advance. Here are a couple tips to help said awkward white kids avoid any embarrassment whenthey upload their pale selves to defjamrapstar.com.

A. No matter what you say, never pronounce the last syllable. Rookie mistake.

B. If you're amongst potentially sensitive friends, you should avoid saying the word at all. Lucky for you, rappers use words that rhyme with a lot of words, and nyuuughhpggffm is no exception. It's easy: trigger, figure, digger, rigor, vigor, bigger, H.R. Giger.

We've made this excerpt from 50 Cent's "I Get Money" racial sensitivity free. We highlighted our change in case you don't catch it:

See? It's as easy as that. Let's try another. This time, we'll just rhyme the word-in-question with what came before it, which is pretty easy to do in Kanye's "Gold Digger":

Sure it's redundant, but at least you avoided that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach, and you won't stumble while competing against your friends in Battle Mode.

You can alsogo the route of GamePro's AJ Glasser and just replace every non-PC word with a word that's just funny to say, as she has in this excerpt from "Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang":

Who knew Dr. Dre wassuch a bigBattlestar and Mork& Mindy/Tribes fan?

Def Jam Rapstar is coming this fall (it was previously scheduled for winter) to the 360, PS3, and Wii. The complete list of announced songs is:

2 Pac - I Get Around
50 Cent - I Get Money
Dr. Dre featuring Snoop Dogg - Nuthin’ But a “G” Thang
Kanye West featuring Jamie Foxx - Gold Digger
Lil’ Wayne - A Milli
Notorius B.I.G. - Juicy
Slick Rick - Children’s Story
T.I. featuring Rihanna - Live Your Life
Wu Tang Clan - C.R.E.A.M.
Young Jeezy featuring Kanye West - Put On

We just received a batch of new screens, which you can see all big like in our screenshot viewer.

Also, censorship is dumb.

Apr 13, 2010

GamesRadarTylerWilde
Associate Editor, Digital at PC Gamer