Eminem is debuting a streetwear collab with NERDS Clothing at New York Comic Con next week, complete with a limited skate deck, long-sleeve tee, bomber jacket, hand-embellished arcade cabinets, and an "original video game" called "Marshall's Massacre." Per Variety, the game was developed by Fan Arcade and is playable at marshallsmassacre.com.
The "video game" is a URL. The developer is a company that "specializes in creating interactive gaming experiences for major artists, entertainment properties and brands." Translation: the game exists so the booth banner can say GAME. The game is a sign for the jackets.
The product list tells you everything: a skate deck, a long-sleeve, a bomber, and a "unique 16-bit interpretation of Eminem." A 53-year-old rap icon is now a pixel sprite for a streetwear brand's booth at the convention that has historically not known what to do with rap. NYCC never has. Now the rapper has a booth, number 3253, and per AllHipHop, the game features zombie-slaying chainsaws, which is the energy of a merch table.
The NERDS CEO's quote is the whole PR machine in one breath: "If you were to tell me that an overnight idea to create NERDS would turn into a collaboration with the biggest hip-hop artist in the world years later, I wouldn't believe it." "The biggest hip-hop artist in the world" is now a phrase a clothing brand gets to use in a press release. Shady Records did not make a game. A game was named after him, hung on a website, and now "original video game" has to do double duty in the same sentence as "limited edition."
YOUR TURN: Is a browser game made to sell a bomber jacket a video game, or is it a receipt?
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