"Guitar Hero" Makers Plan "DJ Hero," Cross-Platform Mash-Ups

The makers of Guitar Hero have a new music game in the works, as DJ Hero might finally hit shelves next summer after two years of development. As the name suggests, DJ Hero feature a simplified plastic scratch deck instead of a mini plastic guitar to hit prompted cues. Whereas users follow a guitar's neck on the screen for what notes to play, DJ will forecast its moves using the half-arc of a vinyl record on the screen. Part of the game's long delay to stores — besides the inherent difficulties in getting the rights to sample-heavy hip-hop tracks — now appears to be Activision's plan on making DJ playable with Guitar Hero gear, allowing users to create mash-ups between the rap and rock genres, which hopefully means playing along to the OJayZis mixtape is within our grasp.

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Song Stories

“Too Close”

Next | 1998

Next was formed in Minneapolis when the uncle of Terry "T-Low" and Raphael "Tweety" Brown, who was a gospel choir director, introduced the brothers to Robert Lavelle "R.L." Huggar. Sounds of Blackness singer Ann Nesby groomed the R&B group before handing them over to Naughty by Nature's KayGee, who wrote and produced "Too Close." The idea for the song was sparked "from a conversation we had with several girls at a nightclub," explained T-Low. "It's talking about the club scene, with guys getting out of hand and the female telling him to back up, asking, 'What are you doing?'" 

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