Electronic Gaming Monthly's Wataru Maruyama recently sat down with the popular San Francisco Bay Area rapper Del the Funky Homosapien to discuss Protoculture, his latest album, which features strong inspiration from games and anime. In the process, he learned that not only does Del have a great affinity for video games - but the guy's as hard-core as they come. Below is the text from the recent interview session, covering everything from Sega's popular Dreamcast console to the niche-developer Treasure. And a little bit of Phantasy Star, Shinobi, and Nights, too. Here's what was said:

　　EGM: How did you get started in Rap?

　　Del: A long time ago, there were crews that specialized in specific areas. There were breakers, DJ's, graffiti writers, and rappers... I happen to do all of them. I did graffiti mostly. I started battling (rapping) against kids in school. (Ice) Cube is my cousin, so when he did Dope Man is when I really got serious about rapping. I really started working with (Dr.) Dre's cousin Jinx, who was in the crew with Cube. So I worked on demos with him, me, A-Plus, Taje from Souls of Mischief, which was the first combination that resembles the current Hieroglyphics (Del's group). Then Cube put my album out, and that's how it started.

　　EGM: What's the earliest recollection of video games in your life?

　　Del: Man, that's taking it far back. The first system I actually owned was some thing that only played Pong- type games. Different variations, like Basketball, but they all look the same basically. Atari 2600 was when I really started getting into video games, like cutting fourth grade and s*** to go home and play video games. I learned that you can't cut fourth grade 'cause there's only one teacher, and they WILL call your parents. My friend had a ColecoVision, so I used to go over there and bug him all the time to play Donkey Kong Jr, Roc'n Rope. Venture was hella tight.

　　EGM: What's your favorite genre?

　　Del: Platforms, probably. Fighting was for a minute, but I played them to death. The thing with that is I feel like I'm not getting anything out of it. I play them so much it gets too easy, so I need something more challenging. Actually, let me take that back. Action games are my favorite. Rising Zan is currently my favorite just because it's so crazy and stuff. Um, I went back to Raystorm 'cause I finally figured out how to chain the attacks and learned the different missile systems. But I go back and forth all the time 'cause I have so many games. I just recently bought all the Nintendo games I had before my little brother stole them and sold them to a pawnshop. So I had to get them all again. I had to try to get my SNES games I had, too. I'm just like, next time I go to Japan, I'm just getting everything. Take about 5 Gs (thousand dollars) and buy everything.

　　EGM: What's the ratio of domestic games to import games you buy?

　　Del: Like half-and-half. Probably a little more import since I'm studying Japanese. For like the Saturn, it's like more imports, but PlayStation is more domestic. I just bought an N64 just for Quake II, but it only has a few games. It does make me remember how much fun Nintendo games used to be - like pure fun like F-Zero. You know what I'm saying?

　　EGM: Why did you write Protoculture now, as opposed to earlier in your career?

　　Del: Um, probably because I haven't done it before. It seems like now I'm more excited about video games.

　　EGM: What are you currently excited about?

　　Del: Probably Dreamcast. Bypass the graphics, 'cause that's obvious. To see Sega coming back is probably the best thing about it. I'm glad to see Sega handling their business. I'm glad to see their coming with a good flow of games from Japan. Whether or not they'll appeal to everybody or not, I want to be able to make the choice myself. PlayStation do it, you know what I'm saying? And of course, Capcom is still messing with them, so that got me excited. I'm waiting for, like, Treasure to come out with some stuff.

　　EGM: What do you think will happen to the Dreamcast when the PlayStation 2 comes out next year?

　　Del: I don't know, man. Um, hopefully, (Sega) gets the ball rolling right now, so by the time PS2 comes out, it won't be such a hassle to them. 'Cause, obviously, everyone's going to rush and get the PlayStation 2. Me, personally, I'm going to wait. You know what I'm saying? Like I waited for the first PlayStation. Sony is a big, corporate entity, I know their main focus is money, so I'm going to make sure they release games I like first before I buy their new system. You know what I'm saying?

　　EGM: What do you think of the PlayStation?

　　Del: PlayStation? It's cool. The game that made me like PS was Star Gladiators and the first Tobal, 'cause I like Akira Toriyama a lot. I still can't understand why they didn't bring Tobal 2 out here, I could break that out right now and still play it like new. They (Dreamfactory) put a lot of work into it. I haven't liked much from Sony, but Ape Escape is tight. I was lovin' Ape Escape; I played that game for, like, three days straight. It's really up to different (third party) companies to make the system for Sony. We'll see the next half. They're trying to make the (PS2) so powerful, though, I wanna see who's going to be able to grasp it. It might come to the point they don't make games I like anymore. I'll have to give up on it, like rap music. I'm damn near ready to give up on rap. Like, man, they need to cool on the bigger than life, five-million- dollar videos; that s*** don't impress me.

　　EGM: What's you impression of the current rap scene?

　　Del: Watered down, which isn't really surprising, 'cause everything happens like that. As soon as it becomes a commodity, the big brains start digging, devising how to make more money. Whatever is popular at the time, like the whole Latin explosion that's going on now, supposedly. Run it in the dirt 'til it's dead. Now it's a lot of underground MC's I like to listen to, so as long as they're around, flourishing, it's cool.(He went on a five-minute tangent and starts showing me a rap magazine he was indirectly dissed in)

　　EGM: What's the name of your new album, and when can we look for it in stores?

　　Del: It's called "Both sides of the Brain" and should be out in late October. I'm also working on an album with Automator, the DJ who worked on Dr. Octagon. I'm also working with Casual on his new album and the kid I did that Protoculture song with, KU!. I'm going to help him with his album, and we're putting out an EP called Code Red, so I'm working on a lot of projects. Souls of Mischief is working on an album called Trilogy. Pep Love has an album coming out. We're going to do another Hieroglyphics album.

　　(At this point another Bay Area rapper and DJ, KU!, joins us).

　　EGM: Tell me about Protoculture.

　　Del: He (KU!) made the beats. Do you remember how we came up with it?

　　KU!: We've been talking about doing a video game song forever. (Del) heard the beat and came up with the name. I sampled a video game to make the beat in the first place, Darkstalkers. It only made sense, I guess.

　　Del: Yeah, that's what really set it off. I guess he was experimenting with sampling off video games.

　　EGM: Have you taken samples off other video games?

　　KU!: I sampled every game I thought that had something tight. I sampled Tekken, Tenchu... um, Guilty Gear. I made, like, three beats off Guilty Gear since it had so many tight tracks. I actually look at things like that equally, like one of the first things I do when I get a game 'cause I'm a producer. I run through the tracks. I do that all the time.

　　Del: I just sampled stuff from Tekken 2 for a song on the Strength compilation....

　　KU!: Cyberpunks.

　　Del: Yeah, it's called Cyberpunks. I think it's from the city stage. The track's slowed down, so you can't really peep.

　　EGM: What do you think Sega needs to do to attract more people, as well as keeping gamers like you happy?

　　Del: They need to get it in everyone's ear more. They need to make more commercials where you can see the actual game being played. That's important. They did it with Sonic, a little bit. A lot of people don't do that, they have a lot of rhetoric and dizziness that doesn't have nothing to do with the game. They need to diversify the software, too. I understand it's a new system and everyone wants to come out with their sure hit of fighting games, a lot of racing games, but they need to come out with other stuff, which I know they are. So I'm not really worrying about it.

　　EGM: What classic Sega titles would you like to see revived on the Dreamcast?

　　Del: Phantasy Star, for one. Wonder Boy, maybe.

　　KU!: Shinobi.

　　Del: Yeah, definitely Shinobi. They need to make some 2D games, too. Just to show that select core of gamers that they still care about that. I think people going to do that, anyway, but Sega need to do it. I'm all for new stuff, too, though. I was glad when they did Nights, and didn't just do another Sonic 'cause it would have been too easy. Nights was tight.

　　EGM: What 3rd party companies do you like?

　　Del: Capcom, Treasure, Atlus. I don't know; there's too many. I mainly gravitate toward Japanese companies. I just feel they have more technique in the programming area, and they're a little more original in ideas. Even if it's still within a certain genre, they usually do some kind of twist or something, you know. It won't be the same thing. Whereas American companies I've seen tend to have that corporate mentality where we got to have a game like this, we got to have graphics like this. I do like John Romero, id, the guys that do Doom, Quake. I do like them.

　　EGM: What would you say to readers to convince them to buy your new album?

　　Del: I try to be inventive; I try to mix it up. It ain't just rapping to be rapping. I think if you like video games, anime, you'll like my album. I got a lot of references to stuff like that. It's straight Hip-Hop, pretty much. I put a twist on it here and there. It's mainly based on, like, freestyles, hip-hop beats, samples, and stuff. Not really so much played stuff, like keyboarding stuff or nothing like that. It's not the typical Hip-Hop album.