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Matthew Roth, the fictional journalist of Vertigo’s DMZ, once said, “In a war of extremes pushing against each other, the stories, the interesting stuff, lie in the middle.”
HipHopGamer is a major up-and-coming force in gaming journalism, according to one side. Another proclaims he’s already arrived and provides real, straight talk in a language gamers can relate to. Yet another side says it simply: HHG is a joke and is “ruining journalism”. A war has been raging since between the believers and the haters, but the real issue I’ve seen almost no one ask is: Just who is HipHopGamer? The wondrous inventions that are Skype and the internet offered a chance to talk straight to the purported master of the practice himself, Gerard “HipHopGamer” Williams. In this first of a two-part series, Gerard talks about his family, how he first got into gaming and hip-hop, and more.
“For one thing, I never knew my mother,” says Gerard on the question of his difficult upbringing. “My father was around and helped me out with stuff – taught me how to fight, how to talk to girls…but it was my grandmother who raised me when I was little, gave me the morals and taught me to be a good person.” Hence, the title “HipHopGranny”. Gerard’s personality shows that he’s got a lot of respect for those that merit it. However, for the entire world that it’s worth, he respects his grandmother much, much more.
Long before the idea for the HipHopGamer Show came about, Gerard was studying programming at New York City Technical College in downtown Brooklyn, NY. However, he eventually left it – “I didn’t want to spend my life just making money” – and took up a job at Keyfood in Brooklyn, packing bags. He now supervises the mail room at Universal Records/Def Jam. Fun fact: He’s met Eminem and The Pussycat Dolls, and can especially attest to the latter’s fineness.
hip_hop_gamer_playingContrary to most beliefs, he’s actually very familiar with gaming. Exactly how much? “I’ve been gaming since forever. Amiga, Atari, Colecovision, Sega Master System, you name it.” But videogames were no mere interest; Gerard actually loves them. “I always made it clear: You want me to study and get good grades, you’re gonna have to take away my games. There’s no other way.” Hip-hop entered his life relatively later: “I first started out in hip-hop at the age of 14 as part of my older brother’s click HLC or Hard Living Criminals, with my first performance at I.S. 292 Junior High School. I took ‘Jackal’ as my performing name.” Compared to his exciting charisma now, he admits that getting on a real stage and singing was very hard. “I remember the very first song I wrote. Man, it was awful!” he recollects amongst much nostalgic laughter. After hearing it myself, I didn’t find it half-bad but I worship Utada Hikaru so I may not exactly be the best judge here.
Gerard’s two personal interests are the very same that form the core of the HHGS. It’s not an idiosyncrasy in the “me-too” stream of gaming blogs. It’s even less about insulting public sensibilities – even though, as Gerard rightfully points out, the image of gamers in society is either “lazy slob” or “socially-challenged geek”, specifically of Caucasian descent (I’m inclined to agree – for being one of the biggest populations in the world, I’ve never seen an Indian gamer on US or UK, much less Indian television).
“There was a show that came on DLB that was like a mix of gaming and hip-hop. I really loved it. It made an incredible impact on me and I thought, ‘This is something no one else had caught on to. This was something I could do – something fresh and entertaining’.”
‘Do what you love and love what you do,’ goes the old adage and for Gerard, combining gaming and hip-hop was only the first step. HipHopGamers was thus born. Note the plural. Gerard first started off with a buddy but it wasn’t long before he began running solo. Upon taking up the mantle of HipHopGamer, the anxiety of being on the internet, another venerable global stage, was there. As soon as he started though, there was no turning back. Hence, the HipHopGamer Show.
Stay tuned for part 2 where Gerard speaks about HHGS itself, its many criticisms, differences between his show and DLB’s, and finally what being the very embodiment of the site means to him.
The guys at 1UP are reporting that the new PSP model will be called the “PSP Go!”. The console will bypass a UMD drive in favor of either a 8 or 16 GB internal hard drive. They are reporting that the console will be revealed at E3 this year, and that Japan will get it in September while the US will get it in either October or November.
