I do not think that you can play the “Who’s That Brown” video game anymore. The Das Racist site seems to have been replaced by a waste disposal advertisement. The group broke up forever ago. You can still see a playthrough of the game as the music video for the song.

Honestly, I do not remember the game as particularly good. Retro-pastiche in video games kind of always leaves me cold. I did not like how the diferent minigames each had sections of the music and so the song did not play smoothly through a playthrough. The minigames were also deeply forgettable. If you are interested in interactive music videos, you should check out A Number From the Ghost instead.

It is kind of interesting as a snapshot, in the way that anything from a while ago can be. I do not hear quite that Le1f style of New York rap although Le Sserafim’s “Boompala” is not that far. Heems is hanging out with mayor of New York and making sophisticated grown-up rap now (you must hear “Accent” if you have not). Saba is now my favorite rapper to open an album by singing “I’m so alone”. My family constantly references Dap’s brother’s video on Apu.

That style of is-it-serious-or-is-it-not rap started before Das Racist and continues without them, but where once it was the default for people who felt like outsiders to rap, now regional rap styles are bigger and bigger. I am not plugged enough into Punjabi rap to talk to you about it but there are lots of people for whom that is the entirety of Indian rap.

I do not have as much to say about it as a snapshot of video games though. Both this game and Dikembe Mutumbo’s Old Spice game were the last gasp of Flash games before Steve Jobs fully killed them. I used to play games on the Cartoon Network website when a kid. I doubt that those are still available either.

I miss that style of tie-in video game. I see that The Odyssey has one on Roblox as does How to Train Your Dragon and Black Adam but I miss the open web style of game. A Roblox tie-in feels inextricably commercial. Who’s That Brown felt a fun kind of dumb.

I do not think that I have seen this kind of game made by people outside of games for people outside of games in a long time. By definition, it cannot be on Itch. Mobile has coagulated. Probably I am just old.

If I were to imagine someone like Rich Brian to make a game for one of his songs, I expect the game would look very similar to Who’s That Brown. I think the retro-pastiche would draw from the same aesthetics despite being made a decade later. I would still expect arcade pixel art instead of blocky 3D.

However, Charli XCX’s music video for “1999” has the isometric graphics of The Sims. It is a shame that she did not make the full game to go along with that. I would love to play Charli XCX meets The Sims.