Diddy and Ecko collaborate on new graffiti game
By MATT SLAGLE , ASAP, Associated Press
© October 16, 2005

DALLAS (AP) -- Marc Ecko is a former graffiti artist-turned-hip-hop fashion designer. Sean ''Diddy'' Combs is a music star-turned-fashion designer. But clothing apparently isn't enough for this duo.

Together, they've fashioned the soundtrack for Ecko's latest creative endeavor: the upcoming graffiti video game ''Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure.''

We recently spoke with Ecko and Diddy (he went by Puff during the interview) about the game. Players assume the roll of Trane (voiced by Hip-hop artist Talib Kweli), a newbie graf artist in a quest for spray-painted immortality on the fictional streets of New Radius. Diddy also plays a character -- DIP, a member of Trane's rival crew.

asap: So, you've conquered fashion. Why make a video game?

Ecko: I believe in the medium as a very kind of relevant, contemporary way of telling a story without any of the real world implications. I could never dunk a basketball, but when I play a basketball video game, all of a sudden I'm breaking backboards and rims. It's always been something I believed in and loved.

asap: ''Getting Up'' hits store shelves in mid-November. What are you hoping players get out of it?

Ecko: Everyone's experience is going to be different. What I'm hoping for is that they're going to have an appreciation for this talent and the energy and excitement of feeling like you're navigating around this world and feeling the threat and doing graffiti.

asap: The game soundtrack includes a remix of Notorious B.I.G.'s ''Who Shot Ya,'' by Serj from System of a Down, ''Clik, Clak, and Spray'' by Pack FM and ''Book of Judges'' from Pharoahe Monch. How important is music to a game like this?

Diddy: Any movie that has been great has had an incredible score, so that's the way he (Ecko) approached me. He said ''This is something I'm taking seriously. When people come and play the game I want them to have an experience that rivals having the experience of them in a movie and actually being a character in a movie.'' And the score helps to drive that.

asap: Describe the relationship between music and graffiti.

Diddy: One of the philosophies of hip hop and motivations, from an MC to a graffiti artist, is ''I am somebody. I am somebody and I am great. And I'm going to express this through my rhymes and I'm going to express this through my art.'' It comes from that motivation from having nothing, and not just laying down and dying, but fighting for your right to be known forever and seen forever and heard forever.

asap: What was it like doing the voice acting for DIP, a member of Trane's rival crew, Vandals of New Radius?

Diddy: It was kind of hard to get into to be perfectly honest. You have to really imagine. It's all so like, ''What if somebody would do this and somebody would do that?'' because it's all in that person's control.

Ecko: It was kind of funny to watch him during the session. In an animated script, I don't need to record your grunts and your moans. But because there's combat, you're watching him have to say like ''Uhhh'' ''Ahhh'' ''Uhhh'' for one of those action animations. It was an interesting creative challenge to say, ''At this point, you might be getting punched hard and what would that sound like?''