There are cultural hurdles facing anyone who makes a rap simulation game as well. According to Harmonix Senior Designer Dan Teasdale, they had a critical question in mind when making all of their design decisions for Rock Band: "Does it feel like an authentic band experience?" Yet that word, "authentic," haunts hip hop culture. Authenticity is a serious issue in rap, far more so than it is in rock music. For example, rock culture allows for cover bands: While considered silly by some, they have their time and their place. Even very famous musicians often cover other artists' songs for their studio albums, sometimes going as far as releasing albums consisting entirely of covers. The concept of a "cover" simply does not exist in rap. Homage, usually in the form of allusion, is acceptable, but covering a song is essentially the same thing as "biting" - that is, stealing someone else's lyrics.
So a rap simulation game faces three major impediments: the public's lack of familiarity with the mechanics of rap, the complexity of simulating and scoring rap, and hip hop culture's complete aversion to anything deemed inauthentic. Perhaps a Rock Band-style rap simulator is a lost cause. But just because we can't have a karaoke-style rap game doesn't mean we can't provide gameplay centered on the art of rapping.
Why not develop a game around the concept of freestyle rapping? Freestyle is the art of improvising rhymes on the spot, often in response to particular cues from an environment, an audience or a rival. Furthermore, freestyle is rap at its most playful. When codified as a freestyle battle, it becomes a full-fledged spectator sport. At first it might seem impossible to score a freestyle videogame: How would a computer judge whether someone's freestyle is fresh?
However, cursory research into how freestyle rappers practice their art reveals patterns that could become the foundation for a promising game. Freestyling requires forethought and strategy. The moment you decide to say "I'm the illest MC to ever rock the house," you must begin composing your next line, which now must end with an -ouse rhyme. Many freestylers rely on their vast vocabulary: Supernatural, one of the greatest freestyle rappers in history, reads the dictionary cover to cover in order to build his verbal arsenal. And the best freestylers can compose a few lines as a setup for the express purpose of a killer punch line a few lines later.
