I can’t say that I “play” Guitar Hero. I’ve played it—and it was fun—but I still don’t understand why people just don’t play real instruments. I get it for the most part, it’s a completely different experience and that you get to participate in the music, whatever. But I’ve come to accept it as a dorm staple, seeing that it is as ubiquitous as potatoes in Ireland, pasta in Italy, or some other starch in some other country.  I had no idea how popular it was until I walked down that darkened hall on move-in day and heard the distinctive clicking of Guitar Hero guitars coming from every open door. The combined cacophony was unsettling. The immense popularity is why, I presume, the good folks at Guitar Hero are coming out with DJ Hero, bringing hip-hop and club to suburbia’s chubby fingertips.

“Turntables have begun outselling guitars” is the buzz around the block nowadays. It seems only right that a game like DJ Hero would come out. But it might be just another nail in the coffin of the much-professed death of hip-hop. I challenge you to find a rapper who doesn’t have a song that refers to the state of hip-hop in some way. You rap connoisseurs out there probably could, but it’s difficult. There are legions of hip-happers and mp3 DJ’s who really don’t understand the beginnings of the genre, who are simply enraptured by the bling and the hustlin’. DJ Hero could very well go two ways: one, it introduces people living under a rock for the past decade to club music and makes them want to genuinely explore and create, or it limits them to pop-rap and shitty electronica and continues the propagation of Disgusting Music.

According to the press release, among the 100+ tracks are artists such as the Black Eyed Peas, DJ Shadow, 50 Cent, Justice, Marvin Gaye, Beck, N.E.R.D. and The Beastie Boys. A bunch of these guys are going to be ill scratching and mixing to. But I’ve been to a 50 Cent concert; the DJ just stood there and played gun shots as periods whenever 50 Cent would stop a song abruptly and start talking to the crowd. Not exactly a great deejaying experience. A second player could also emcee if the beat is particularly hot and their nerdy rhymes are up to snuff. As for the more European House-inclined,  there’s the purely mixing aspect which might even qualify as actual practice for CD and computer DJ’s, seeing as the interface would be fairly similar.

DJ Shadow’s involvement, however, is surprising. A lot of what he stands for seems to directly contradict what DJ Hero is. He’s a digger, what DJ’s like to call people that love rooting through dusty vinyl crates. DJ Hero does not, and more importantly, can not give you that experience. With record stores going out of business all over, it’s sad that this often overlooked aspect of DJing is yet again overlooked.

But these are mostly just nitpicks. I really do look forward to playing DJ Hero, I just hope that they get it right.