From the beginning, Hip Hop has always been about the emcee. Who has the best lyrics? Who has the best flow? And, of course, who can sustain both in a good-old-fashioned street emcee battle? We've seen our share of musical sim titles over the last several years. We've rocked out on both Guitar Hero and Rock Band, jammed to heavy metal with Metallica, and even relived the '60s through The Beatles. However, Hip Hop fans have been lost in the cavalcade of musical madness. Enter Def Jam Enterprises, the Russell Simmons, Lyor Cohen and Kevin Liles company that handles all thing Def Jam outside of the music. Def Jam Rapstar, from Def Jam Enterprises, brings home a karaoke-style emcee gaming experience, complete with freestyle gameplay and music from the last thirty years of Hip Hop history.

Konami's Def Jam Rapstar has three modes: Party, Career and Battle mode. In most musical sims, you can fool the game on vocals by adjusting your pitch and just humming along to the beat. Rapster recognizes that in Hip Hop, it's all about the lyrics. The game uses predictive voice recognition to not only match the pitch but also the words. The game pools 45 tracks from Hip Hop history, several of which are outside the Def Jam label. You'll get to rhyme to songs like "Push It" from Salt-N-Pepa, "Fight the Power" from Public Enemy, "Scenario" from A Tribe Called Quest, "Children's Story" from Slick Rick and "Juicy" from Notorious B.I.G. as well as newer songs like "Best I Ever Had" by Drake.

Since Hip Hop is all about the emcee battle, The Clik decided it was time to go head to head with the team at 4mm Games, one of the developers behind Def Jam Rapstar. We queued up "Children's Story," grabbed our mics, pumped up the volume and got the battle started. Def Jam Rapstar uses the PS3 and Xbox 360's cameras to record you as you battle, but you won't notice this as you focus on the words streaming in front of you below the music video. As the video played on screen, we simultaneously battled line-for-line to the words of Rick the Ruler. A blue and orange meter on the right side of the screen measures who is running the battle. After an intense showdown, The Clik took the crown.

Once you finish battling, your gaming experience need not come to a crashing halt. Def Jam Rapstar takes your battle straight to the streets, or rather the cyber-streets. After a battle, you'll see pictures of yourself shown on screen. You will also be able to watch and edit the video of you rhyming along to the music. Gamers can select a small clip featuring the best moments of their video. The editor allows you to add various pieces of clip art from the in game library, including the cliché gold chains from the 80s. You can also add special effects animations and a few visual filters to the video that will really put you back in the era of 80s music videos.

Once you're done editing your video, the battle continues online at www.defjamrapstar.com. You can upload your video to the online community and challenge people online. Other gamers who visit the site will have the chance to vote for who posted the best video. So, you'll want to get your social networking on and post to Facebook and Twitter to rack up the votes. If you do well, you will earn additional badges online. What makes online battles really cool is that the .com side bridges the divide between PS3 and Xbox 360 gamers. You can battle a person with an online video regardless of whether his or her video was made on the Xbox 360 or PS3.

In addition to rhyming over existing music videos, gamers can also freestyle to Def Jam Rapstar exclusive instrumental tracks from producers like Just Blaze, Premiere and DJ Khalil. Def Jam Enterprises is promoting this as a way for aspiring artists to get themselves seen by the public, and possibly get on the radar of the greater music industry.

Def Jam Rapster is one game that Hip Hop fans will surely delight in. The game comes to Xbox 360, PS3 and the Nintendo Wii October 5, 2010. There will be a software only version for $59.99 on the Xbox 360 and PS3, and a bundle pack with a microphone for $69.99. On the Wii, the software-only version will be available for $49.99 and the bundle will retail for $59.99. New DLC is expected to be out on launch.