Rap Inspired Dog Names

While few dogs seem to be able to keep a steady rhythm outside of wagging their tail or incessantly barking (and even then it seems a little off), one dog changed the face of video games and helped to cement the rise of hip hop-style music worldwide: PaRappa the Rapper. 

PaRappa was the beanie-capped canine protagonist of the self-titled video game released for the original PlayStation back in 1996. Outside of its unique visual design that put two-dimensional paper-cutout-like characters and backgrounds in a three-dimensional space, the game claims something even more impressive, especially for its place and time: it is credited as the first true rhythm-based game. 

In recent years, Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Hero, and Rock Band all ended up so popular that they each saw subsequent numbered and themed titles follow suit (at least until game manufacturers buried the genre with over saturation), all of which were based on the rhythmic timing of hitting buttons first laid out by PaRappa. 

Unlike mainstream rap of the time, PaRappa was upbeat and light, accessible to all ages (also largely thanks to having canine characters), and more importantly, was participatory, and even taught many of its players how to keep a beat (if they didn’t already), as well as complex rhythmic timing. As the game was written in Japan, the lyrical content was quirky at best, but in the long run, it seemed to add to the game’s overall appeal, especially since some of the lines in combination with the music were incredibly catchy. 

It was quite well-received when it was first released and by the time sales began to die upon its re-release, it had already totaled 1.4 million copies worldwide. The next year, in 1998, it received awards for “Outstanding Achievement in Interactive Design” as well as “Outstanding Achievement in Sound and Music”, which was not only a testament to its clever design and overall execution, but a signal that the continued rise of rhythmic genres like rap and hip hop were further cementing themselves in worldwide culture. 

It ended up being so popular that it was also released on several more platforms including PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable, and also had sequels developed in the years following.  On top of all that, there was even an anime television series that was produced in 2001 and 2002 along with a short spin-off in 2016 that aired after the original game was re-introduced to PlayStation 4 owners through the system’s digital store.