Rapper Lupe Fiasco Won Against Street Fighter’s Best Player

Is the Grammy-winning lyricist taking over the fighting game scene?

Lupe Fiasco: Grammy-winning rapper, music producer, entrepreneur, and apparently, video gamer. Enough of a video gamer to rap about it, as shown in one of his songs, where he talks about playing Double Dragon on the Sega Genesis.

“Yeah, lots of options, now up is down, two player // Now A is jump and B is punch // You seein’ somethin’ that weren’t there // To find friendliness in a nemesis, it’s a old test // 3 buttons, see somethin’ // That’s emphasis on genesis.”

In the same song, he also mentions Metal Gear Solid.

“At dark, you ain’t gotta hide it // Keep it – Metal Gear Solid”

But we’re not going to talk about Lupe’s use of video games to illustrate metaphors. We’re here to talk about fighting games, which, at a glance, looks as simple as mashing buttons to punch and kick your way to victory. Sounds simple enough for anybody that can hold a controller. Right? Wrong.

In fighting games such as Street Fighter, you need to use skill to be a competitive player, meaning it takes more than button mashing to win; it takes knowing the game to another level. Hit boxes, reading your opponents’ moves before he or she even does it–all that jazz.

Meet Daigo. The G.O.A.T. of competitive Street Fighter. The god of 2D fighting games, whose career in competitive video gaming spans for more than two decades. People see him as the embodiment of his main, Ryu. Here is one of his most memorable moments in Street Fighter history where he just straight wrecked his opponent with almost-zero health:

Lupe, being the video game enthusiast that he is, got asked by Mad Catz (Daigo’s promoter) if he was interested to take on the god himself. And he said yes.

Let the training begin. #LupeVsDaigo@MarkMan23

— Lupe Fiasco (@LupeFiasco) January 27, 2016

Not one to back down from any challenge, Daigo was all for it. And so a match was made.

I will face @lupefiasco in @StreetFighter V this Monday in San Francisco: https://t.co/h5sDO0IVYK#LupeVSDaigopic.twitter.com/8sVHMlPNKL

— Daigo Umehara 梅原大吾 (@daigothebeast) February 12, 2016

So we have a god-level rapper fighting a god-level gamer at his own game. Lupe isn’t going to rap line after line like a rap battle, and even if he did his voice would be drowned by the crowd cheering on Daigo. Doesn’t sound like a fair match, does it? The result, though, isn’t what you expect.

Lupe won, fair and square.

So is the rapper with the hot rhymes better than god of 2D fighting. Is Daigo losing his edge? Is this the beginning of some epic rap game, video game beef? Or just one big PR Stunt? We’re enjoying it either way.

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