Sony Playstation 5 :
For Domingo Antonio Edjang Moreno, better known as The chojin, It is important that “the videogames […] dare to touch on social issues “. The veteran rapper from Torrejn de Ardoz, Madrid, published in early February a song in collaboration with PlayStation about Spider-Man: Miles Morales. In addition to this, in Vandal we have had the opportunity to chat with the MC, of course, about that collaboration, but also about topics such as social messages in interactive leisure, the influence of videogames in their music and even the paradigm shift in a youth that has gone from having musicians as references to doing the same with streamers and youtubers.
The lyrics of his songs and the interviews he conducts on his YouTube channel usually revolve around social problems, which has a certain relationship with the narrative of the Insomiac Games video game. “One of the things I like the most about the project of Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is precisely that he shows a commitment to what is happening, in this case in the United States, which goes much further than a priori might seem sensible for such a large company, “the Madrid native tells us.
“They would not have to go into the brown this one to take out a piece of giant poster where it says ‘Black Live Matter’. And yet they do. They choose to use a character who is a boy who has a lot to do with the societies we live in now because he is mixed; mestizaje is the word that is said: of a Puerto Rican mother and an African-American father. In the game you see a lot of Latin touch, there are words in Spanish, music and others, in a city as cosmopolitan as Marvel’s New York. “He adds that” it seems important “that video games, as “the greatest entertainment there is globally, dare to touch on social issues”.
Rambo 3 and video games that are not political
We asked him about What do you think of those war games that always deal with conflicts from the American point of view? and on non-political games, an opinion that reflects on us with an anecdote from his childhood: “When I was little, they occasionally put on TV cowboy movies where the good guys were the cowboys and the bad guys were the Indians and where the murder of the Indians was justified. Me, being small, I understood that this was lifeThat indeed the good guys were the cowboys, the white Europeans who came there, and the bad guys were the Indians who were defending their territory. “
“During all the years of my life I have seen a lot of cinema, mainly American, where obviously the story is always told from their point of view being the good guys and the bad guys. There are very curious situations, such as when for example Rambo goes to help the Taliban in Rambo 3, and of course, suddenly the Taliban become the bad guys against America and then Rambo 3 disappears […]. Everything is politics“.
“And video games are too, [ya que son] the protagonists of a planetary victorious culture right now, right?“, the artist asks.” And what they do is that, play at … As is done with literature, as is done with cinema, play at always place in the center, in this case, the United States. What do I think? Well, if you understand that it is not something other than fiction, then it does not seem bad. If they end up convincing you that indeed the Indians were the bad guys, then we already have a problem“.
The video game, a hobby that indirectly permeates his music
The Chojin, who has been playing video games frequently since the 1980s (Remember from Donkey Kong Game & Watch to Street Fighter 2 and Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins arcade games, and assures that in Cabal “he was the best, in the world probably”), I agreed to rap Miles Morales because it is “Superfan of comics, superfan of Spider-Man since he was little […] and I am a gamer. It was all perfect “.
The musician spent a good part of the confinement rescuing The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and giving “many hours” to The Last of Us Part II, but when the measures for the pandemic were relaxed, he was leaving it until a few months ago, when Sony sent him a PS5, at which point he regained the habit of playing: “I think that a time in which we live in which so many negative things happen around us and we are so bombarded by news and by fanfare and so on, finding a bubble is always nice, and video games provide it to me“.
This hobby for decades has had influence on his music, although “indirectly”. He tells us that a producer with whom he shared the first decade of his career “is a true madman of video games.” “Then sure, He is the one who provided me with the music and did it with a strong influence of video games, so there are lots of samples and lots of ideas that end up leaving there. In the end, we coexist in a society in which we are all interconnected. “
From musical stars to streamers
Same as the music industry seemed to steer the course of the young not too long ago (You dress in a similar way to your favorite artist, you put your hair like the members of your favorite punk band, etc.), we reflected with El Chojin on How do you see that now it is the streamers and influencers who have that importance? in youth: “I see it that way and I understand it perfectly. I know there is much people who for some unknown reason hate that these creators content have achieved everything they are achieving, but I am totally on the opposite side: the I admire a lot and applaud you. It seems to me that they have managed to create something out of nothing and that is formidable. “
“They do have a lot of influence on the kids who listen to them and who see them, but it’s normal. If you end up making a person an important part of your life, in this case because they play, it is a important part, and being so, you want to feel close to: if you want to dress like him it’s normal, if you want to put your hair like him it’s normal. At the end, man learns through observation. If that is what you are watching all the time, then it is logical to think that the boy also wants to be a streamer, that he also wants to put his hair like them and others. Sounds good to me and it seems natural to me. “
We have conducted this interview through Discord thanks to an invitation from PlayStation Spain.
